Over the last couple days we've seen the horrible situation happening in Calgary. The Flames not only lost their best player in Johnny Gaudreau to a far lesser team in Columbus, but they've not received a trade request from Matthew Tkachuk and he also told them he will not sign an extension. In a matter of less than a week they have lost 2 100 point scorers and probably the two most important players to their franchise last year.
So since this happened, the rumours have been swirling around that Auston Matthews is going to do the same thing at the end of his contract next year. The Maple Leafs have failed to win a single playoff series during the Matthews era, and failed to even make the playoffs on multiple occasions. People believe that Matthews will leave in free agency because the Leafs made a not-so-smart decision only giving him a 5 year deal which walked him right into free agency as a UFA.
This sparked a huge uproar on social media with Maple Leafs fans beginning to panic, so on Sportsnet's Tim and Friends, Hockey Insider Frank Seravalli tried his best to calm down Leafs fans.
Matthews is currently on a 5 year deal which pays him $11,640,000 and after winning the Rocket Richard, Hart and Ted Lindsay award this year, he will definitely be looking for a raise on this current contract.