{"id":519032,"date":"2026-03-23T20:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/519032\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:08:17","slug":"could-maple-leafs-oilers-swap-auston-matthews-connor-mcdavid-in-blockbuster-trade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/519032\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Maple Leafs, Oilers swap Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid in blockbuster trade?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could Maple Leafs, Oilers swap Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid in blockbuster trade?<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of a brutal Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> nightmare season, there are sure to be trade rumors speculated about involving Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n

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If the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> fail to win the Stanley Cup again, it might even spark discussions about Connor McDavid’s future.<\/p>\n

And hey, if everyone else is going to speculate, why not this: a trade between the Leafs and Oilers to swap Matthews and McDavid.<\/p>\n

This isn’t to say it’s going to happen. It’s not even to say it’s likely. It’s to wonder, for a moment, if it could be possible.<\/p>\n

And in short, it certainly could be.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Oilers might be closer to Connor McDavid nightmare than it appears<\/a><\/p>\n

How an Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid trade would work<\/p>\n

On paper, almost everything about this lines up, if the players would consent to the trade.<\/p>\n

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Each superstar is under contract for two more seasons, with their deals up after the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n

Matthews makes $13.25 million per season for the remaining stretch. McDavid will get $12.5 million per year.<\/p>\n

So as far as managing the books, it’s actually pretty simple.<\/p>\n

Valuation and vibes would be trickier.<\/p>\n

McDavid is the best player on the planet, which by default means Matthews isn’t. The Leafs would likely have to deal another asset or two with Matthews to pull this hypothetical trade off.<\/p>\n

There’s also the matter of how it impacts each team’s morale to make such a move. There’s no telling what the reaction on both sides might be to a blockbuster of epic proportions.<\/p>\n

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But it really could work. One side would probably end up feeling better about the outcome than the other. Given that neither has won the ultimate prize with their current captain, though, why not start the speculation now? It’d be hard to have a bigger shake up than something like this.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could Maple Leafs, Oilers swap Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid in blockbuster trade? originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,155,146,5,20,5172,4,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-519032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-maple-leafs","13":"tag-mapleleafs","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-toronto","16":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","17":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116280302289083817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}