You don't have to replace him, but he has the ability to walk if he wants to. If the Leafs don't win at least one round, you trade him in his last year of his contract if he doesn't want a new contract or wait until the summer

Signing Tavares was the problem. I really wish we could go back in time to undo that signing

Nope, not a problem. He's a terrific player and would be considered a top 10-15 player if he wasn't in TO. He gets dumped on mainly because leaf haters want him to fail as they do the leafs in general.

As soon as he can resign, they will resign him

No, he obviously did not have an issue with term. He wants to stay in Toronto, has said that previously and recently, and wanted long term as you said.

Dubas couldnt make that happen as the leafs (obviously) need the lower AAV so Matthews agreed to a lower AAV in exchange for less term. If he signs an 8 year deal at $15M AAV as his next contract that is still good value for the leafs. He is one of the best players in the league and arguably the best goal scorer in the league now and definitely the best goal scorer of his generation.

Matthews? If we’re talking about Matthews, of course he’s worth every dollar in a vacuum. Awesome player. But normally when these 2nd deals come in, we either say, “huh, that seems low. Oh, its because they didn’t buy out many years of UFA.” Or it’s “wow, that’s a lot. Oh, okay, they got max term, that makes sense.” With Matthews it was wow that’s high, and holy crap he got that for five years. It was really horrible asset management. Dubas should have been offering 3 years, or 8 years, and nothing in between. If you look at other guys that signed with player friendly term, like 5 or 6 years off their entry, its normally team friendly AAV. Guys like Pastrnak and Mackinnon are way underpaid because they’ll get to hit UFA at a young age.

Dubas ignored that trend and just handed over a blank check.

You can say the stars aren’t the problem until you’re blue in the face, but there’s something wrong with this core. It’s why they haven’t won a playoff round in the cap era.

That trend ended with Draisaitl, McDavid and Eichel. Tonne of people like to point at Pasternak and MacKinnon as bargains but both signed their deals before breaking out. MacKinnon's deal didn't even look that great during the 1st year of it but then was a bargain his 2nd year. Pastrnak himself has said he could have done better and thought Nylander holding out was smart.

Matthews would have absolutely been fine with an 8 year deal but wanted way more. A 3 year deal would have cost 10 million still and the next one would have been 13+ on a long term deal. When Matthews is up again he'll be 26. An 8 year deal will take him to his early 30's and the opposite will happen longer term will lower the average. It's absolutely a fine way to do business. Again though, many on here want it all to fail and compare apples to oranges to lay fault on Dubas. Sakic is taking no flak for giving Makar 9 x 5.

5 years was a great decision by the leafs as it has allowed them a very valuable $2M in extra cap space during a flat cap period...

That is obviously dependant on him re-signing after the 5-years which should be expected...

Please tell me you don’t think that Dubas was happy with 5 years.

*Pastrnak and Mackinnon both took player friendly term for team friendly money. Matthews got player friendly term for player friendly money.

Nope, not a problem. He's a terrific player and would be considered a top 10-15 player if he wasn't in TO. He gets dumped on mainly because leaf haters want him to fail as they do the leafs in general.

Please tell me you don’t think that Dubas was happy with 5 years.

*Pastrnak and Mackinnon both took player friendly term for team friendly money. Matthews got player friendly term for player friendly money.