Quoting: aadoyle
Why would the leafs not match a big offer for Matthews
Matthews is their franchise center the guy they tanked for in 2015-2016.
This is the guy u work around to go for it and win a cup. Did Washington give up on Ovie to get their cup no, Tampa with Stamkos no, heck Colorado with MacKinnon of course not. Toronto will be going for it as lets be honest Toronto in 5 years will still be as good if not better than they are now as they will have cap space to use (especially when JT is done) and can continue to build a solid team around him
As if u let him go your basically going alright rebuild and become the sabers
Those teams you mentioned won with a cost efficient team. Washington isn't the same after paying their previous cost efficient players with raises. Avs, lost Kadri for cap reasons, and McKinnon gets a big raise next season, doesn't make the Avs or McKinnon any better. Sure Tampa did well Stamkos with as their highest paid players but they have become a little weaker and will in the future as Kucherov, Point and others now make more than 8.5m Stamkos.
I don't know how you can make the Sabres/Leafs comparison. Sabres were a team that didn't spend to the cap, and two of most expensive players, Skinner and Okposo were overpaid.
If the Leafs have lets say 24m allotted to Nylander and Matthews in the summer of 2024, but those two players sign elsewhere, you can be sure the Leafs will be spending that 24m on other players
Heck then the following season, there is 22m cap in Tavares and Marner off the books. Again the Leafs will spending that cap, but on what players?