Yes it is. and value starts with 1sts and Aho.. and add to that.

Anything to punch a hole in the lineup for Nathan Horton.

As a Leaf fan id much rather have Necas + Bean, Necas is easy going to be a Top 6 Center and Jake Bean is looking like an Elite defenceman. Plus a potential lottery pick and a Mid 2nd round pick. You have a god tier amount of Depth in the forward group. Mathews will never be traded but i think the idea of "fair value" is interesting.

I don't get it....for a decade the Leafs were trash, never had a legit #1 centre and we would all cling to the unrealistic hope that the next great toronto-born UFA would sign here to save us.

Leafs finally bottom out...draft themselves 3 studs in Nylander, Marner and Matthews...becomes competitive enough to finally convince the superstar hometown kid to sign here as a UFA....and now that it's time to pay these guys...we want to trade them away for futures? Why? The cap space? Let's enjoy what we have for a change

I'm fine if you love Necas and Bean but, IMO, this is poor asset management

This is a terrible trade. Why would you want to trade one of the top centres in the league? Just a very bad trade, I don't know what else to say. Everyone is so worried about the cap and the contracts. The leafs finally have a good team and everyone is so worried about the cap they are forgetting to just enjoy the ride.

It is a tough one. Are his contract demands going to blow the cap and make the team less competitive next season? Are the reports from Mckenzie and Freidman true and Matthews only willing to look at a short term contract to get to UFA? Matthews seems hard to read …. he has looked uninspired in stretches this year and last year. Is it Babcock? Is he injured? I would be worried that if he is offered a max offer sheet this summer, he would accept.

Fair concerns...and it would be hard to 'win' any deal that involves trading him...

as for the reports on contracts...I don't think it's so much a matter of 'Matthews wants to hit free agency soon' so much as it's agents adapting to the way GM's are running teams now.

Teams aren't quick to hand out long, rich contracts to guys in their 30's...which an 8 year deal does for Matthews and Marner. A 5 year deal means they will be up for contract renewals at age 27...and assuming they're still stars...can likely land a rich 8 yr deal at that point which takes them to 35yrs old.

I think it's more about maximizing career earnings and security vs wanting to get out of Toronto sooner. I could be wrong...but that's just how I interpret the rumours on 5yrs

See i am under the same interpretation, I assume Mathews only gets 4-5 year deal bcause they leafs cant afford him at the AAV he wants for 7-8 years with Marleau and Zatizev still here. meaning he hits UFA at 26. Because Mathews was an Older player at the time of his draft year (Born 3 days earlier he was able to be drafted in 2015)

Players are eligible for UFA after 7 years of pro or age 27...whichever comes first....so a 4 year contract would lead him straight into his free agency...a 5 year deal buys at least 1 year of UFA.

I am aware; however its common knowledge that the more UFA years that are bought the higher the AAV. Lets say a 4-5 Year contract Mathews gets 10.5-11.5m while if you were to give him a 7-8 year i am sure the AVV would be in the 12.5-13.5m Range.

Yep...I think there's mutual benefit on both sides to doing 5 years. I think Dubas is willing and certainly prefers to lock him up for 8...but recognizes the AAV in doing so would handcuff him from adding elsewhere and likely mean moving some other pieces (Connor Brown) out. IMO, the contract negotiations between Dubas and Matthews' camp was likely directly related to the leafs taking on Muzzin's $4m.

I don't think he commits that cap space next year unless he is confident that matthews' aav on a 5 year term give the team the flexibility to add it

My only concern with Mathews is we are forced to sign him to a 4-5 Year deal that walks him to UFA and his cap hit alongside JT,MM & WN hinder the teams ability to have depth for future playoff pushs & resign our Core assets. People keep talking about how "Enjoy it while it lasts" is it not poor Asset management to not think of retaining current assets as well like MR or future contracts of Sandin/Lilijgren? If you think Morgan Rielly is signing for anything less than 8-9m when his contract is up you are delusional. I am not worried about the "Big 3" more as i am worried about our ability to sign players 3-4 years down the road.

Just for anyone who has not actually looked at the numbers il do a quick breakdown.

Even with PM coming off the books thats still the Leafs have 40m Already committed to the 2020-2021 Season

Adding in a Mathews at 11.5m
Marner at 8.5m
Kap & A.Johnsson at 2m Each I assume they get (2mx2 bridge deals)
Dermott needs to be signed assuming he gets in the 3-5m Range.

Thats 70m Commited after resigning just those players and still needing to either resign/sign aprox 8-10 more NHL caliber roster players (2 of Which need to be Top 4 Dmen) and then sign new players coming off ELC. even assuming the BEST case of the cap being at 85-87m thats not a lot of room.

Noticeable Projected NHL players or current NHL players in the Leafs system that need to be resigned that i did not mention above.

Muzzin, Jake
Sparks, Garret
Borgman, Andreas
Bracco, Jeremy
Ozhiganov, Igor
Brown, Connor

There's only so much future planning you can do when you're not sure what the cap ceiling will be at that time. Most GM's are dead set against a 4 year contract for a player coming off ELC...it's almost always 1-3 years or 5+ and I hope that's the same with Matthews. I would personally like to stagger him, Nylander and Marner so that all 3 aren't due for renewals at the same time...but it wouldn't be a deal breaker. If I can get matthews and marner locked up on 5 year deals that allows me to continue to add and re-sign other talent over the next 3 years....I make that deal.

The thing we have to keep in mind...if they both do 5yr deals and all of the 'big 3' are due for renewals at the same time....is that they'd be eligible to re-sign as of July 1st 2022 (after finishing year 3 of their 5 year extension)...so it gives the team time at that point to see how much they have to spend. Rielly will need a new deal for that coming season and it's possible Sandin/Liljegren could come due at that point (depending on when they make their debut with the leafs and if their ELC slides accordingly).

Either way...they can reassess the 'core' at that time along with where the salary cap is and how willing these guys are to be locked up on another long term deal. For me...it's at that point you would consider moving Matthews if he's insisting on testing UFA after the following season

For sure, i am not saying Trading mathews right now is a good idea at all, but in the future i think it might be something that is needed to be done because of his UFA status.