The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Franchise superstar Auston Matthews to a four year contract extension worth a total of 53 million dollars, carrying an AAV of 13.25 million dollars.
Matthews, who is turning 26 on September 17th, is entering the final year of his current five-year 58 million dollar contract with the blue and white. It has been rumored all summer that the Matthews extension was “all but done,” and as summer wore on, Leafs Nation began to sweat a little. The last thing this fan base needed was to enter the season without their cornerstone player locked up beyond the 2023/24 season.
Since being selected first overall by the Leafs back in 2016, Matthews has appeared in 481 regular season games, where he has scored an incredibly impressive 299 goals while adding 243 assists for a total of 543 points. While Matthews and the Leafs have had incredible regular season success since he arrived on the scene, it is no surprise that the playoff success simply just has not been on the same level. Over the course of his first seven years with the Franchise, they have made the playoffs every single year but have bowed out in the first round each except for this previous season. They finally made it past the first round in the 2023 Playoffs, but their run came to an abrupt end as they were eliminated quite easily in just five games at the hands of the Florida Panthers. Matthews’ playoff resume is as follows; he has appeared in 50 games with the blue and white in the postseason, where he has scored 22 goals as well as 22 assists for a total of 44 points. His individual numbers speak for themself, but the team success just hasn’t been there, unfortunately.
This is a massive win for the Leafs organization as a whole. Getting Matthews signed, even if it was only a four-year extension this time around before training camp or the regular season kicks off, is huge.
The next step? To sort out a contract extension for Auston’s good friend William Nylander, who is also entering the final year of his current contract as well.
