NHL Notebook: Could a Maple Leafs expulsion see them trade Auston Matthews?

There’s no denying that changes are in the works in Toronto. They’re just waiting for the offseason to come around before they begin.

Mitch Marner, the belle of this year’s free agent ball, is likely off looking for greener pastures, projected by AFP Analytics to sign a $13-million AAV deal across seven years.

He’s not the only high-end unrestricted free agent from the team, either, as there will be more than enough questions about what happens with John Tavares. AFP Analytics has him pegged for a three-year, $7.9-million AAV deal. Restricted free agents in Matthew Knies and Nicholas Robertson, meanwhile, will need new deals.

On Monday, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli questioned just how deep the cuts could go in Toronto — and whether or not they could look to move captain Auston Matthews.

How deep should the cuts be? Marner is far from alone in his playoff shortcomings, but he will bear the brunt on his way out the door. What about Morgan Rielly? He was exposed for his lack of foot speed big time in these playoffs, plus that contract will only age poorly. Should John Tavares still be retained on the cheap? And what about Auston Matthews?

It’s an interesting thought exercise. The captain has 26 goals in 68 career postseason games; three of those games were two-goal games, so he has scored in 23 of 68 playoff contests as a Leaf. His scoring is nearly cut in half, from 0.64 goals per game in the regular season to 0.38 in the postseason. Here’s the thing: It’s not just the lack of postseason success for Matthews, but also his chronic injuries. If it truly is a recurring back injury for Matthews, as has been whispered, how many of those injuries actually get better over time? There’s a million reasons why they should keep him. He’s a straight up assassin when healthy, one of the most difficult players in the league to replace. But he hasn’t looked like a threat in a while. It’s admittedly very unlikely that Toronto would move on from Matthews – and his no-movement clause would limit their control – but how many questions or thought exercises should be totally off the table for this Toronto team?

Could you imagine Matthews on the trade block? It would undoubtedly be one of the biggest teams in NHL history — if it were to happen — but as Seravalli highlighted, it’s unlikely they look to go down that path, but it’s nonetheless intriguing to see it brought up even as a thought experiment.

Other news and notes…

• Seravalli’s piece also touched on a few other interesting topics, like what happens with Alex Ovechkin next year? The Great Eight’s ice-time dipped during the playoffs and he played just 14 minutes in Game 5 against Carolina. Is the Golden Knights’ window to win closing? They sure didn’t look good against the Oilers. And lastly, what’s it going to take for Winnipeg to get over the hump in the playoffs? One could argue they were closer this year than in years past.
• Looking ahead to the offseason, a team to watch will be the Philadelphia Flyers. Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about it on Daily Faceoff LIVE Monday, where the former of the two talked about how they’re a team looking to take some steps forward in their rebuild. They’ll have lots of money to play with this summer — $24.7-million, according to Puckpedia, with very few of their own to take care of.