Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews agree to 4-year, $53M extension
Posted August 23, 2023 5:16 pm.
Last Updated August 23, 2023 6:40 pm.
The Toronto Maple Leafs agreed to a four-year, $53-million contract extension with star centre Auston Matthews, the team announced on Wednesday.
The contract will be worth $13.25 million per season, making Matthews the highest-paid player in the NHL in terms of annual salary value ahead of Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon ($12.6 million per year) and Edmonton Oilers centre Connor McDavid ($12.5 million per year).
Matthews posted to social media before the extension was announced by the team, writing, “I feel fortunate to continue this journey as a Maple Leaf in front of the best fans in hockey! I will do everything I can to help get us to the top of the mountain. GLG!”
I feel fortunate to continue this journey as a Maple Leaf in front of the best fans in hockey! I will do everything I can to help get us to the top of the mountain. GLG! #LeafsForever
— Auston Matthews (@AM34) August 23, 2023
Matthews will play out the final year of his previous contract, worth $11.6 million per season before the new deal kicks in in 2024-25.
The 25-year-old centre recorded 85 points (40 goals, 45 assists) in 74 games with the Maple Leafs during the 2022-23 regular season and added 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 11 games during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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Matthews scored 40 goals in his first season in 2016-17, setting the Maple Leafs rookie record, and in 2020-21, he won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer with 41 goals in 52 games.
The following year, Matthews set records for most goals scored in a single season by an American-born player and a Maple Leaf, reaching the 60-goal mark for the first time. He went on to win the Rocket Richard Trophy for the second consecutive season and the Hart Memorial Trophy, given to the league’s most valuable player.
Matthews also won the 2022 Ted Lindsay Award, becoming the first Maple Leaf in franchise history to do so.
Toronto has qualified for the playoffs in every season Matthews has played since he was drafted first overall in 2016. In terms of franchise leaders, Matthews is tied for fifth in goals with 299 and tied for second in overtime goals (nine).
He is fifth overall in power-play goals (76), fourth in game-winning goals (53), and 11th in points (542).
General manager Brad Treliving expressed a desire to extend Matthews before the upcoming season, noting a preference to do the same with winger William Nylander.
Nylander, 27, is in the final year of his contract that will pay him $6.96 million this season. Nylander is coming off a career-best 40-goal and 87-point season. He added four goals and 10 points across 11 playoff games.
