Why would he get the same percentage as mcdavid?? Especially at that time? Mcdavid had a hart and art Ross after his elc.

I stand by that they paid too much for the aav.

Thank god Dubas declined then

Matthews is a generational talent. He's the 2nd best player in the world and an absolute stud. He is the franchise in TO. He wants the same cap percentage as McDavid, you give it to him. At the time, TO couldn't afford to give him that so they compromised. And they will resign him next summer quick and then it will be hilarious to see what you guys have to say.

You going to hang the 32nd place banner in the bell centre? First team to ever finish 32nd in league history

I’ve never seen any legitimate reporting or sources around that so I’ll stand by it being driven by fans on here - predominantly leafs fans.

I’m basing it on when contract was signed. He was arguably not a top ten player in the league at the time. I’m not saying he’s not worth it, I’m saying at the time if you were giving him that much per year you needed to get the term.

I won’t get into second best player in the league or not(I think it’s makar). But I mean mcdavid could’ve asked for the max percentage and been worth it.

Babcock gave him 3rd line minutes for his first 2 seasons and 2nd line minutes in his 3rd season. His "lack" of production at the time was entirely due to an old school coach being in love with himself. He was never overpaid and anyone who doesn't have a bias against the Leafs knows this.

Leafs fans are such a defensive bunch, you disagree and it’s trolling or bias. Plent of people agree with the fact that at 11.5 he should e been signed for 8 years

Only because McDavid signed for 12.5x8 two seasons prior. But the cap had gone up a significant amount. So a comparable % over 8 years was higher and TO didn't want to spend that much because they also had Marner to sign the next season. It's not hard to understand why things went the way they did. You are clearly in the Dubas overpays everyone camp which is funny considering Nylander is underpaid and Rielly got a very good deal as well.

I think he overpaid marner and matthews strictly based on the term. No one else really. I do think Murray over campbell was a brutal move though.

And again there’s no real matthews to mcdavid comparison to be had at the time

Murray has 2 cups, is younger than Campbell and was better in the 2nd half of last season on a worse team. Campbell is a good guy but 5*5 is massively risky. I doubt he replicates his best time in TO behind Edmonton's defence and Murray on a good team could rebound really nicely. TO had the 27th ranked defence last year. You can't get much worse and I would wager both goalies have decent years. Average at the worst

Murray fell off hard in the playoffs after those two cups. I’m a huge sid fan and saw a lot of his playoff games and he allowed average goals at the worst times until he left.

I made a mistake in my prior statement. The Leafs had a top 5 defence but 27th ranked goaltending. Sorry for the confusion

Pittsburgh as a whole has dropped off big

I’m talking right after back to back cups. It had zero to do with the team in front of him. He let bad glove side goals in constantly in playoffs until he left

Murray was bad 1 year in Pittsburgh too. He was not bad last year actually.

After or before he signed his contract? That's what we're comparing no?

Well they both signed the contract after year 3, and there’s zero comparison between the two at that point.

Well Matthews signed his about Feb 1 of year 3 iirc. (happy to be corrected.

McDavid I believe signed his before his third year (I checked and was right. )

So in those two years McDavid was 11th in pts and 52 in goals. But he had a big injury in his rookie year


He was second in ppg and 26ty in goals per game

In Matthews first 3 years (I don't know how to separate by partial year)

He was 27th in points and 5th in goals

But again he has some injuries. He was 27th in ppg and 2nd in gpg.

So their different players. Matthews was immediately at the top of the league in goal scoring mcjesus at overall points

Award wise Connor obviously wins with a Pearson/Hart and art Ross to Matthews Calder

In the end McDavid was better. Personally I thought he was deserving to split the difference between Eichel and McDavid. Mcdavid got 12.5*8 and Eichel 10*8. I thought Matthews should have gotten 11.25*8 (adjust for cap). In the end he got about that by 5 so I think he did well. But not out of the realm of appropriate

For me it’s just that he only gave up one year of ufa so he has a massive amount of bargaining power now at 26. For what was close to mcdavid money it would’ve been good business to get this extra three years. It’s not bad in a value sense, but not a great look when almost every other gm got 8 years when paying top tier amounts.

Agreed. I think it's not a great deal but not a bad one if that makes sense

Maybe? Maybe it’ll go right next to the one that says “It was 3-1”

Or the one that says back to back 32nd place finishes

Then hopefully Bedard’s jersey goes up in the rafters right next to that one. At the end of the day, the Habs won the same amount of playoff series this year as the leafs have the past 18 years

Atleast the Isles made it past the first round much rather be in the postion they are in then what we are have