{"id":556382,"date":"2026-04-19T23:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556382\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:58:00","slug":"auston-matthews-is-waving-every-relationship-red-flag-that-he-can-at-the-leafs-its-time-to-get-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556382\/","title":{"rendered":"Auston Matthews is waving every relationship red flag that he can at the Leafs. It\u2019s time to get out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Maple Leafs’ end of season media availability, team captain Auston Matthews didn’t give a direct answer to a question about his desire to remain with the club.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Moving down the scale of delusion, there are crypto types, stock pickers, day traders and, at the bottom, Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> fans who\u2019ve just heard something they don\u2019t want to hear. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Auston Matthews told the Leafs he wants to leave Toronto. He didn\u2019t say those words, but that\u2019s what he said<\/a>. Anyone who\u2019s been through a breakup knows that when you ask your significant other for reassurances and get back formulations like \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d and \u201cI can\u2019t predict the future,\u201d it\u2019s time to start looking for a new apartment. <\/p>\n

But not Toronto. Toronto\u2019s spent the weekend convincing itself that this is Matthews\u2019s way of scaring management straight. Forget about retools. The Leafs are going to Mad Max their way through 2026-27. Just look at them on the bench. They\u2019re not half-asleep or about to cry. They\u2019re girding themselves. <\/p>\n

In this telling, Matthews is the only guy at MLSE who refuses to accept ChatGPT playing on his wing, rather than the dad who\u2019s taking a suitcase along as he nips down to the corner store to grab some smokes. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this show before. Mitch Marner spent more than a year hemming and hawing his way out of town. Every time he was asked if he was staying, Marner\u2019s answer was some version of, \u2018Look over there. Is that a bird?\u2019<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Please respect the Leafs’ inability to pick a GM themselves<\/a><\/p>\n

In that case, as in this one, not answering is the answer. Toronto couldn\u2019t accept it then and can\u2019t accept it now. This city will debase itself in any way, accept any insult, as long as it keeps the relationship alive.<\/p>\n

Question to Matthews: \u201cFor yourself personally, is this a place you want to be, or would reject any suggestion that you should not be here for the remainder of your contract?<\/p>\n

Matthews\u2019s (total non-sequitur of an) answer: \u201cYeah, I think all that stuff, I mean, there\u2019s always noise and there\u2019s always chatter. I think personally that I really don\u2019t pay attention to all that. I just focus on myself and focus on this team and try to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guy. <\/p>\n

Does not. <\/p>\n

Want to be here. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Leafs went through a season of Mitch Marner giving non-answers on his intention to remain with the franchise. The organization may not be willing do the same with Matthews, Cathal Kelly writes.Adam Hunger\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The question is what the Leafs are going to do about it. A serious organization wouldn\u2019t immediately run Matthews out of town on a rail. That\u2019s how you get robbed in a trade. But a major-league outfit would be going 24 hours a day laying down the track. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care if the next GM is Phil Jackson or Knute Rockne or, God help him, Mats Sundin, that person\u2019s first job is establishing a minimum standard of the what the Toronto Maple Leafs will accept. Principle one \u2013 if you don\u2019t want to play for this team, then you won\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Since Matthews controls any move through his full no-trade protection, now is the time to begin breaking him down. Auston, where do you really want to go? Blue sky it for us. Okay, what\u2019s your second pick? All right, how about you give us a full list?<\/p>\n

Great, how about this or that other team? If we\u2019re already talking about you going, would you be willing to do that?<\/p>\n

You get your hand on his neck and apply steadily increasing pressure, until he realizes there is no turning back. Then you steer him toward the deal that works best for the club. <\/p>\n

Verticals gone horizontal: Pelley tries to explain the Leafs’ failed season<\/a><\/p>\n

If he won\u2019t agree to go where you want him to, you tell him you\u2019re going to wring every minute of the two years left on his deal out of him, and that it\u2019s going to be even less fun than that sounds. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s not getting traded at the deadline, no matter if this bunch of yahoos is 33rd in the NHL at the time. You\u2019re keeping Craig Berube as head coach, but you\u2019ve told him to stop being so nice to everyone. Also, you\u2019re getting him a bullhorn for his birthday.<\/p>\n

For a 28-year-old who\u2019s already starting to slip, two years in that situation might as well be 20. Matthews will fold. <\/p>\n

Do the Leafs have the steel to do this? Are you kidding? Of course not. Some businesses are a rock in the river. They have their standards and they stick to them. The Leafs are a paper boat in a flood tide. They go wherever their employees at the time feel like going. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

William Nylander (left) said he wouldn’t be interested in a total teardown of the Leafs’ roster. Matthews took a wait-and-see approach when asked about it last week.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

William Nylander gives fans the finger? Ha ha, he\u2019s just joking. What a card. <\/p>\n

Nylander is another one volunteering part-time as the Leafs\u2019 GM. When The Athletic asked him a couple of weeks ago if he intended to stay, he gave one of those, \u2018Sure, maybe\u2019 answers. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnless it was a full rebuild and we were going to get rid of everybody, then it\u2019s a different story,\u201d Nylander said.<\/p>\n

Do these guys understand what a contract is? If you want to decide year-to-year whether or not this is the team you prefer to be playing on, then sign year-to-year contracts. <\/p>\n

If you would prefer the security of an eight-year deal \u2013 which is what Nylander is bound by \u2013 you\u2019re giving up your vote. You\u2019re here through a rebuild or a resale or the reimagination of the franchise into a Walmart. <\/p>\n

That all of these non-decision makers believe so strongly they have decision-making power tells you everything about how dysfunctional the Leafs have become. Nylander would be another one I\u2019d be escorting out the closest open door, or window. Will that make the hockey team better? I don\u2019t know \u2013 could it be any worse?<\/p>\n

A rational organization should have realized over the last couple of months that the Leafs\u2019 problems aren\u2019t hockey problems. They\u2019re relationship problems. Ten years in, these people are all taking past each other. No amount of grovelling or selective deafness is going to fix this. It\u2019s time for everyone to move on. <\/p>\n

The longer the Leafs take to accept that, the uglier and more drawn out the inevitable breakup will be. Which means it\u2019s guaranteed to be as ugly, as drawn out and, in the end, as profitless as it can be. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: At the Maple Leafs’ end of season media availability, team captain Auston Matthews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[5,20,5172,4,1929,1376,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-556382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-maple-leafs","10":"tag-mapleleafs","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-noastack","13":"tag-topstory","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","16":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434087094095612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556382","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=556382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}