Chris Johnston

The selling end...

could go a little bit more dramatically.

They do have pending UFAs, but that's going to take them likely losing a bunch of these games between now and the deadline.

And so I really believe it could go both ways and they're just going to wait and see and make a call probably over that Olympic break and enact in the 10 or 11 days before the deadline afterwards.

Well, I'm sure he would share the disappointment of others, but I will say this.

My impression of Austin Matthews is, you know, I don't think they need to do anything and be really gentle around him.

Like, I think he's still very committed to being a Leaf.

I think he loves being the captain of this team.

Obviously, he's been front and center here in a lot of conversation the last few days.

But, you know, I don't sense at all his commitment waning.

And, in fact, I think if they were making decisions –

That made sense that they were, you know, if it's properly messaged to some degree in terms of what the plans are like, he wants a chance to win, too.

And I'm sure, you know, he's sitting there feeling a lot of the things everybody is like.

The numbers don't lie at a certain point.

Right.

We're more than 50 games into this season.

the Leafs have rarely that to their credit they did have a great stretch after Christmas and in the early part of January but other than that most of this year they have not looked the part of what they expect to be which they started this season thinking they're a contender you know I think the truth is staring them in the face um maybe they can save it here and and change some minds you know with a hot finish right before the Olympic break or what have you but

Honestly, I think if we're being honest, they have to be looking towards at least a soft little retool, maybe add some of those assets you're talking about, Hayes, and not with the idea they're blowing everything up, but just basically taking a small step back with an idea of trying to take a few forward starting next year.

Well, I mean, look, I can only go on the history.

First of all, I think there's an active dialogue between Austin Matthew, his agent, the team.