Auston Matthews leaves Maple Leafs guessing about his future

TORONTO — What Auston Matthews did not say is as important as what he did say.

Upon conclusion of a season blessed with national triumph and cursed with local embarrassment, the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs was offered multiple opportunities to assure the city’s fans that he was down for the long haul, that he only envisions himself playing hockey in one NHL sweater.

Instead, Matthews pled the fifth.

“I can’t predict the future. There are steps that have to take place. They’ve got to hire new leadership in management. I don’t really know. I can’t really predict the future,” Matthews told reporters Thursday morning, the earliest locker cleanout day of his 10-year career.

“There is always noise and chatter. Personally, I really don’t pay attention to all of that. I really just focus on myself, this team, and trying to be a part of the solution,” he replied.

No doubt, it’s unusual for all this consternation over a superstar still under contract for two-plus years. 

But Matthews and the Maple Leafs began preliminary discussions on his desire to re-sign two off-seasons prior to his first impending UFA summer. The 2026-27 campaign is Matthews’s critical “Quinn Hughes” year, the season before the contract season. 

And with talents and salaries of this magnitude, franchises must be proactive.

Hughes’s exit from Vancouver is fresh. As is Toronto’s Mitch Marner masterclass in asset mismanagement. The Leafs want Matthews in the fold; the Leafs cannot let him walk for nothing.

So, the top priority for Keith Pelley’s hired head of hockey operations is to find out: Is our guy willing to stick here through thick and thin? Or does he have a wandering eye?

The irony here is that Matthews, armed with a full no-move clause, absolutely can predict his near future. He could orchestrate a move to a team he believes has a better shot at the team success he desires. Or he could dig in and lead the Leafs for two more seasons minimum. 

Don’t underestimate the power of the star athlete in a top-heavy league.

What would the player like to hear from the next boss?

“I don’t know if there is anything specific. Those conversations are going to be personal and private. We aren’t even at that point yet,” Matthews said. “When the time comes, those conversations will just happen organically.”

Our take: Matthews struck a noncommittal tone because — after the Leafs fell to 28th place in the standings, 31st in goals against, and 32nd in immediately having their captain’s back — the man needs to know what, exactly, he’s committing to. 

Does training camp open with Craig Berube trying, once again, to get the troops to buy in to a chip-and-charge, clutter-the-crease attack? Does GM TBD find that elusive playmaking winger missing from Toronto’s top six? Is everyone healthy? Is the vision inspiring?

Those things, to be fair, Matthews cannot predict.

To a man, everyone wearing a Maple Leafs logo on the last day of school asserted their belief that 2025-26 could merely be a hiccup, that they have the personnel and conviction to summon a Bruins-esque bounce-back to the 2027 post-season.

“Absolutely,” Berube asserted, the Maple Leafs can win a Stanley Cup with Matthews and William Nylander. “’Cause I watch them play, and I know what kind of people they are.”

Stay with that a moment, though.

Watching Matthews play this season was underwhelming, to be kind.

The centreman carried the second-highest cap hit in the sport ($13.25 million) yet finished 67th in points per game (0.88) among skaters who played 20 games minimum.

His 27 goals and 53 points are both career lows. And while his defensive commitment and matchup game is strong, Matthews finished a dash-4.

Matthews will be 29 when the puck drops next, and now he has a surgically repaired left knee (“I think you know how I feel about the hit,” he said) to add to an injury history that includes a concussion, a separated shoulder, a twice-repaired wrist, and a wonky back.

Still, outside of some admitted Olympic-celebration jetlag, Matthews maintained that until Radko Gudas forced him into the brace he’s wearing, he had felt fine physically this season and will be raring to go come training camp.

Matthews stated that he loves being a Leaf and that he shares fans’ frustration and that he and his teammates must own this failure.

Less than 12 hours after the Maple Leafs’ 50th loss of the season, Matthews still believes he can win in this town.

“I believe in the guys in this room and the people we have here,” he said. “We are going to hire new leadership and management. There will be changes. That is just the way things go.”

But if we peer into the future, and the winning doesn’t come — or doesn’t come quick enough — Matthews cracked a door into a world where he could be part of those changes.

That’s just the way things go.

• Does Berube expect to coach the Maple Leafs in 2026-27?

While he has been no indication otherwise from up top, Berube did acknowledge that new management would make that call.

• When Brad Treliving dangled Matthew Knies at the trade deadline, his ask was for one of three packages in a return, according to Nick Kypreos: two first-round picks and a high-end prospect; or one first-round pick and two high-end prospects; or three high-end prospects.

Did Knies take such a hefty ask as a compliment?

“I wouldn’t want to look at it as a compliment. I’d look at it as a crappy thing. I don’t want to leave this group of guys,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what it was. I wouldn’t want to leave here.

“I want to stay here. I want to play here.”

• John Tavares intends to play for Team Canada at next month’s world championships in Switzerland. He loves the game, especially in winner-take-all intensity, and finds he always learns and improves playing with different teammates under different coaches in different settings.

“It can only benefit me,” Tavares said.

• Chris Tanev, beauty that he is, said he feels he “let a lot of people down” by only suiting up for 11 games. 

Every doctor he visited suggested season-ending groin surgery, but Tanev wanted to try to rehab without going under the knife. Only once the Leafs played themselves out of contention did he relent.

The 36-year-old defenceman’s rehabilitation is on track, and he vows to come back on time and in return-to-form condition. 

“I work harder than anybody,” Tanev said.

• Anthony Stolarz was the first to notice something was amiss this season, publicly calling out the team’s defensive and togetherness issues way back in October.

“I think most definitely could have been handled in the room. But I think sometimes that what we need is tough love,” Stolarz reflected. “The guys understood where I was coming from. There was no animosity.”