As of July 1st, Leafs franchise center Auston Matthews and star winger William Nylander both became eligible to sign contract extensions with the team. However, here we sit an entire calendar month later with no extensions in place for either player.
The whole ordeal has been a frustrating one, largely because of the fact that we may not see a Matthews deal announced until after the Nylander contract extension is completed. Multiple credible sources have reported in recent weeks that the Leafs want to get Nylander locked in first before announcing a Matthews extension to avoid any further salary inflation from the Nylander camp, who is already reportedly seeking a long-term deal in excess of $10M per season.
We know that Matthews was present at the Mitch Marner wedding this weekend, which means that he is in Toronto. While Nylander wasn't spotted in any photos at Marner's wedding, there have been reports that he attended the event as well.
Carlo Colaiacovo, a former Leaf and current TSN co-host and analyst on TSN 1050's First Up, dropped an interesting little nugget of information on the Matthews extension on this morning's program. Colaiacovo had mentioned that with Matthews in town, he believes that we'll see him put pen to paper this week. When host, Aaron Korolnek, mentioned Auston Matthews' extension as his #2 storyline for the month of August in Toronto, Colaiacovo again reiterated, "It's any day now, bud."
If Matthews is set to sign any day, does this mean that we're coming up on a William Nylander deal as well? If Matthews is announced and Nylander still has not signed, does it then mean that the Leafs will shift their focus into trying to move him? Still plenty of questions, but if Colaiacovo's Leafs connections are telling him that we'll see a Matthews deal any day now, at least that gives us something to look forward to this week!
