Best Contracts

I don’t think you can put Matthews in that category because his deal only bought out one year of UFA. I definitely get it with McDavid, because they locked him up for 8 years, but Matthews deal seems kind of awful to me. 3 years would have been great because they would still have his RFA rights. 8 years would have been great because they would have locked up the player to max term. 5 years without really enjoying any discount kinda stinks.

Get Matthews out of this group. We are taking him to free agency without buying any UFA years, in which he is expected to walk. I doubt he re-signs

Matthews is not a good contract, yes he won the Rocket Richard but he scored 1 goal against *Clears Throat* The 18th Seeded Team in the playoffs (who leafs fans thought would roll over and die)

Plus he'll walk in FA if they don't win a series before the contract is up

When he resigns it won't matter. He took less term for less money. He had no issues signing long term but prior to the pandemic the cap was set to rise and he wanted the same percentage of the cap as other guys like Crosby, McDavid etc and that was more money over 8 years. It's still a value deal, he is the current best goal scorer in hockey.

Well, if he re-signs. That’s a question now. And any negotiations will be against the entire league, not against an offer sheet. He reportedly was asking for 13.4 on an 8 year deal, so he didn’t have issues signing with term, but he wanted a crazy amount of money. Guys going into a UFA contract always get paid more than RFAs. 5 years was a bad choice for the leafs.