{"id":587538,"date":"2026-05-31T02:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T02:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/587538\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T02:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T02:12:17","slug":"insider-lists-6-conditions-for-maple-leafs-to-convince-auston-matthews-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/587538\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Lists 6 Conditions For Maple Leafs to Convince Auston Matthews to Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have a very busy summer ahead of them. The new management team of GM John Chayka and senior executive advisor Mats Sundin are well aware of that. And they need to get moving quickly.<\/p>\n

The top priority on their list overall seems to be to convince captain Auston Matthews<\/a> that it\u2019s all worth sticking around for. They\u2019ve had a preliminary Zoom call with him, which was said to have been \u2018positive\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Now the hard part begins. According to insider David Pagnotta, speaking on The Sheet<\/a> with Jeff Marek, there are six conditions that must be met in order to satisfy Matthews that they\u2019re headed in the right direction.<\/p>\n

6 provisions Leafs must meet to satisfy Auston Matthews, per insider<\/p>\n

Projected No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna is on board<\/p>\n

The blueline has been upgraded to become more mobile<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve found a \u201clegitimate\u201d third-line center<\/p>\n

The fourth line \u201chas been fixed\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey understand where their goaltending is\u201d<\/p>\n

It all must be done by July 15th<\/p>\n

And Pagnotta didn\u2019t even include the other major hole that must be filled: A new head coach. Will Matthews approve of whomever that choice is?<\/p>\n

\u201cAuston wants to win in Toronto,\u201d said Pagnotta. \u201cBut if this team isn\u2019t primed and positioned to (win) now, then why are we wasting everybody\u2019s time?\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, one of the biggest questions that isn\u2019t being asked: Shouldn\u2019t this be about the Leafs demanding buy-in from Matthews himself before they can understand what direction they\u2019re going and what the top needs are on the team?<\/p>\n

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For example, if the captain isn\u2019t committed, then finding a true No. 1 center becomes a top focus, never mind a 3C. And maybe a complete tear-down would be in order. That would completely change the focal point of the moves that need to be made this summer. Even the choice of head coach would be different.<\/p>\n

It seems like going all-out to satisfy a player with only two years left on his contract, who hasn\u2019t shown any real inclination to be the guy they can build a true Stanley Cup contender around, is a very tenuous place to be.<\/p>\n

But this is the bed the Maple Leafs seem to have made for themselves. And we\u2019ll find out how they intend to lie in it as the next six weeks or so unfold.<\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs have a very busy summer ahead of them. The new management team of GM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,5,59498,20,5172,11852,65410,4,66,31,5171,65409],"class_list":["post-587538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-hockey","tag-john-chayka","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-mats-sundin","tag-new-management-team","tag-nhl","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-will-matthews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116666770663966713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587538","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=587538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}