TORONTO — When John Chayka gets a chance to sit down with Auston Matthews in the coming weeks, the new Toronto Maple Leafs general manager says his priority is to get on “the same page” with his franchise player.
Scheduling constraints have kept them from meeting face-to-face since Chayka and senior executive adviser Mats Sundin were hired by the Leafs on May 3, with Matthews at home in Arizona doing rehab work following knee surgery and the new Leafs brass tending to business in Toronto.
Chayka and Sundin have started doing a deep dive on the organization by conducting meetings with team staff, including some of the players still in the city, but don’t yet have an agreed-upon time where they’ll get in front of Matthews.
That looms as an important conversation. Not only does it come at a time of significant change for the Leafs, it’s also an inflection point for Matthews. As reported last week, the superstar center wants to see what roster changes are made this summer before committing to a return to Toronto in September.
Chayka has had continuing communication with Matthews’ agent, Judd Moldaver, and remains optimistic that his vision for where the team needs to go will be met favorably by his captain.
“Auston’s an accomplished player that is world-class,” Chayka said Wednesday. “I think he wants to align on the vision and the strategy ahead, as do we. So I don’t think there’s any type of competing interests. I think it’s about getting on the same page.”
Since being drafted first overall by the Leafs in 2016, Matthews has always spoken favorably about playing for an organization with a rich history. When he met reporters last month at the team’s locker clean-out day, he said, “I think it’s an incredible honour to wake up every day and wear this jersey.”
But he also noted he couldn’t predict the future when asked about where he stood with two years remaining on his contract in Toronto.
The Leafs endured a 30-point drop in the standings last season, which led to Wednesday’s firing of coach Craig Berube, and the immediate path forward isn’t yet clear. While the team has understandably been buoyed by winning the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery at the end of the second day on the job for Chayka and Sundin last week, the roster is going to need a lot of work to go from 28th to returning to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in short order.
Ten years into his NHL career and coming off a gold medal win at the Milan Olympics, Matthews wants to chase championships. That’s his top priority. All indications from Leafs ownership have been that they hope to do the same, and they’ll almost certainly need a healthy Matthews back in top form to get there in the next couple seasons.
As for the lag in finding time to visit with the franchise’s all-time leading goal-scorer, Chayka views that as a positive because it’s going to allow him to approach that discussion from a more informed position than if it happened right after he was hired.
“I think again it was important for me to get a good lay of the land, in terms of our internal workings and what we had in place here, and I think we can have a really informed discussion,” Chayka said. “I wanted to make sure that we had all of the knowledge we could possibly have so that when we sit down we can have the best discussion.”
Truth be told, that eventual meeting will likely be the starting point of conversations that continue well into the summer.
Matthews is most interested in seeing what changes are actually made during the draft and free-agent period rather than hearing about what could theoretically happen, according to league sources. So there’s no rush on his end. However, Chayka and Sundin undoubtedly want to pick his brain about a number of topics around the club.
Matthews has weathered injuries over the last two seasons and had his least productive years by total goals under Berube with 27 and 33. He wasn’t consulted before the coach’s firing, according to Chayka, but management is looking forward to getting his point of view on the state of the organization.
“Similar to all of the players, honestly,” Chayka said. “I know Auston is the captain and a prolific goal-scorer and there’s much attention on that for that reason. I understand that. From my perspective, as I said in my (introductory) press conference, and it wasn’t just a line: I view the players as our partners.
“I think we’ve had really great discussions to date. Sitting in there with Mats obviously, with his background and perspective, sharing notes and experiences, both sides learning from each other. That’s kind of how we view that.”