Leafs reject they would want Caufield and slaf

Of course they would... But not according to the posts I've seen since last night. Thanks for making my point though...

Crazy to say this but the most unrealistic part of this is the 8x13....... Mathews is gonna be a number that's going to be concerning the rest of the league on his next contract. if the cap goes up like they project he may very well be a 14 million guy in two years

God no!!!!

The most unrealistic part is him signing in montreal.

This is all unrealistic. Leafs need to fire the coach and move on.

Why's that? Big market, chance to win, high end facilities, teams able to pay his contract anyways he wants (likely all signing bonus), great city to live in and the only real negative is the media (which is the same in Toronto).

If anything the Leafs have scared him away from wanting to be in any market that's this demanding but other then that Montreal is a great place to play.

Sure, it’s a big market. Plenty will be after matthews
Chance to win? The habs suck, and i don’t see it getting better quickly.
High end facilities? There’s one team in the league that doesn’t have that.
Any team will pay Auston matthews anyway he wants.

If he doesn’t re-sign in toronto, there’s no shot he signs in canada in my opinion.

Matthews want to play offensive/creative hockey. Habs wanna play offensive/creative hockey. That may count for more than we think!

How do you know what brand of hockey Auston Matthews wants to play? That’s just a ridiculous statement.

MTL and Mathews reject
Good player for sure but im taking Suzuki over Matthews for my Captain
Suzuki Accomplished more as when he was a Rookie he brought MTL back from Elimination to winning in a Tournament a Playoff Spot.(matthews never did that)
Then he took his team to a Stanley Cup Final as a Sophmore

Thats the Jean Beliveau type leader i'd prefer.
Lest we forget Phil Espisito was the Matthews of his day sometimes doubling Beliveaus yearly points.
But how many Cups did JB lead MTL to and how many did Phil ?

For similar reasons i want Suzuki over Matthews
Cant have both logistically without becoming cap strapped and losing the 1st round every year as seen in Toronto.
We might be interested in Marner who trained with Suzuki his draft and rookie years working with the same Speed Skating Coach.
There's real potential there for Marner to be the Missing link on the Suzuki-Caufield line (Dach/Anderson work fine there but Marner could eleveate NS/CC production by 10-20 points)

If i was trading for a Center today it would probably be Byfield in hopes we could get similar results out of him as we did Dach and Danault.
He's 6'5 and still growing and just turned 20 entering his 3rd year out the draft and 2nd year Pro. He's struggling really bad in all area's leading to a career low 11 minutes average ice time.
Like Poehling he's going to take years to mold into a servicable player and im convinced LAK arent willing to wait as they are really close with 56 games left in his Waiver Exemption.
That said unlike Poehling Byfields issues arent lack of skills or knowledge as far as being a 200ft player goes its just adjusting to his body.
Like Brian Boyle he'll take years to adjust to his size and like Brian Boyle i think LAK realize this and trade him.(for a 3rd rounder that became Jordan Weal )
I think LAK timeline is similar place where they cant wait another 2-3 years before he actually starts playing at the level the NHL Starter status requires.


That said unlike Boyle they wont have to sell so low.
While the players are similar and while Boyle was good
I think if Byfield if at the same cross roads 3-4 years earlier then Boyle was.
Boyle had all that extra time to adjust to his size before turning Pro that Byfield has not as he grew 2 inches since his first game with LAK.


MTL has all the time in the world and would send him to Laval ASAP letting him ride out this and next year there.
When he's adjusted Physically and became a consistent top 6 guy then we'll bring him back up hoping he's ready.
But guys this size dont Adjust without playing big minutes and the role LAK have him in is the complete opposite of that.

They need to fire some fans. A send a message to the fan base saying:

"You can't say regular season doesn't matter and only post-season results do, and then complain about a slow start or even a bad season as long as we don't miss the playoffs."

They can also make a production video showing what they do to fans who don't comply. I'm thinking they tie up a dummy's limbs on the post of the net and then shot pucks at it, firing squad style, then they set fire to the dummy.

LA can give Byfield all the time he needs too, he just needs to be ready to take over once Kopitar retires or becomes a 3C or lower.

Lol, “i want suzuki over matthews.” Thank you for identifying yourself as an all-world homer.

Matthews is off limits, but what kind of package would you put together for Marner

He’s a psychic

Is he off limits next season if he doesn’t have a contract?

Leafs take that trade all day long, and then have cap to build a well rounded team (without Dubas). But Matthews extending with Habs.....I doubt that .

Habs are young and will be improving.

You can think facilities are the same but that's not close to being true. Toronto, MTL and the Rangers spend the most on player amenities and those small things matter to players.

Also, not as many teams owners can pay Mathews in pure signing bonuses as you think. Cash up front or in bulk sums does affect most owners and they have to be ready for those pay days.

For Auston matthews, every single team offers the same structure.
High taxes
Team stinks
Different language

Not a shot.

I have tried to apply logic.

All offensively gifted players want to play creative hockey. Being jammed into a defensive system hampers their ability to score.

The extreme version of this is Caufield with Ducharme. Matthews is totally unengaged with Keefe right now, you don't think it's the one thing that changed A.K.A the defense-first system he is trying to implement?

Marner and Matthews, two of the most creative and offensively gifted forwards in the league, are being stifled.

He’s one of the best defensive centers in the league. Maybe he would hate fishing the puck out of the back of his net all the time because the team stinks.

It was total guess work on your part, cmon.

Nope, if he he doesn't sign buy Jan 1st 2024 than I would absolutely move him but for this season he is off limilts

Keefe is not stifled Matthews and Marner he is trying to get the whole team to be more responsible defensively. Marner and Matthews and trying to tune Keefe out because Keefe called them out after the first 4 games