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NHL insider questions whether Maple Leafs would consider trading captain Auston Matthews as part of Core 4 rejig

Modified May 19, 2025 18:08 GMT

Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs just endured another playoff failure.

The Maple Leafs coughed up a 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers, losing four of the next five games in Round 2. If that wasn't bad enough, they capped it off by getting booed out of their own building in a 6-1 Game 7 loss on Sunday night.

It somehow seems to get worse every single year for this team. Blown series leads, core players not showing up in big games, and the fan base beginning to turn on them.

The question now becomes, where does Toronto go next? Mitch Marner and John Tavares are easy outs as pending UFAs, but could it go deeper than that? NHL insider Frank Seravalli dove into the conversation about trading Auston Matthews in his latest article for Daily Faceoff.

Seravalli shared the article on X (formerly Twitter).

"And what about Auston Matthews? It's an interesting thought exercise... There's a million reasons why they should keep him, but he hasn't looked like a threat in a while. It's admittedly very unlikely that Toronto would move on from Matthews, but how many questions or thought exercises should be totally off the table for this Toronto team?" Seravalli said.

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Seravalli acknowledged how dominant a player Matthews can be, though he reiterated the concerns over his playoff performances and injury history.

Matthews just completed the first season of his four-year, $53,000,000 contract extension signed with the Maple Leafs in 2023.

Auston Matthews called his team out after yet another Game 7 loss

Game 7s have not been kind to Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The 27-year-old fell to 0-6 in career Game 7s following Sunday night's loss, and it was the most lopsided defeat of them all.

Matthews showed his displeasure with the team's performance in his postgame media availability. Reporter Stu Cowan shared his comments on X.

"'I thought we had too many passengers,' says Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who had two shots on goal tonight," Cowan wrote.

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Matthews has been taking plenty of flak for those comments after putting forth a relatively lifeless performance himself. He finishes the postseason with 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 13 games played.

While he will very likely remain a Maple Leaf moving forward, it's fair to wonder just how different the roster around him could look to begin the 2025-26 campaign. It all shapes up to be potentially the most important offseason in the Toronto Maple Leafs' franchise history.

About the author

Jackson Weber is an NHL journalist at Sportskeeda with a Bcomm degree in Business and Sport Management from the University of Guelph.

Jackson has grown up as a lifelong Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are his all-time favorite players. Watching the Penguins win the Stanley Cup three times is an experience that Jackson will never forget. Years later, you realize how rare it is to see your favorite team win even once, so three championships were just incredible.

When not watching, playing, or writing about sports, Jackson loves to cook and is passionate about health and nutrition.

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