Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn't stop with an Auston Matthews trade
If the Leafs get to this point, it could be a nightmare.
Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn't stop with an Auston Matthews trade originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Toronto Maple Leafs are by no means guaranteed to trade Auston Matthews.
But with two years left on Matthews' contract, the chatter has started. The rumors will persist. There will be at least some who believe the Leafs will end up trading away their captain.
And if that happens, well, it will be just the beginning. The Athletic's Jonas Siegel wrote in a new column on Monday that a Matthews trade would only be the first domino to fall. In essence, if Toronto is willing to deal away Matthews, it might as well do even more.
"Regardless of what they got, how well they did in other words, in a franchise-changing transaction, the optics of such a move would be devastating: Arguably the best player in franchise history telling the world he doesn’t believe he can win any longer in Toronto," Siegel writes. "Telling the world he doesn’t believe in the Leafs, in other words. " MORE: Is a Connor McDavid-Auston Matthews trade feasible?