The Maple Leafs Have to Stop Asking Matthews to Do

There has always been something a little strange about the way the Toronto Maple Leafs have used Auston Matthews. Here you have one of the best goal scorers of his generation, a player who once scored 60 goals and then followed that with 69, and yet there have been stretches where it feels like the Maple Leafs have needed him to be their best defensive centre, their penalty-kill solution, their faceoff guy and their offensive engine all at the same time.

That's a lot to put on one player. And maybe the interesting thing about this new Maple Leafs team is that they finally have enough pieces to take some of that work away from him.

Has John Chayka built a strong enough team around Matthews for this season?

That's where I think the additions of players like Colton Sissons, Nick Paul and Teddy Blueger become more important than their individual statistics. These aren't players Toronto brought in because it expects them to score 30 goals. Quite the opposite. They're here to do some of the dirty work.

If Sissons and Blueger can take defensive-zone starts, kill penalties and handle difficult minutes, maybe Matthews doesn't have to start every shift thinking about what happens if the puck turns over. That's important because Matthews is at his best when he's thinking about scoring.

We saw that version of him in 2023-24 when he scored 69 goals. We also saw it earlier in his career, when he was routinely among the league's most dangerous offensive players.

The question is no longer whether Matthews can still do the job. He’s proven he can.

The question now is whether the Maple Leafs can create the conditions for him to do it consistently. And that's where Jim Hiller becomes interesting. Maybe this isn't about asking Matthews to work harder. Maybe it's about asking him to do less, but to do the things he's really good at more often.

There is another piece to this, of course. Matthews has to stay healthy. That's where the Andy O'Brien hire could turn out to be one of those moves that doesn't get much attention in October but becomes awfully important in March and April.

The Maple Leafs don't need Matthews to play 84 games just because 84 is the number on the schedule. They need him healthy when the games matter most.

Can the Maple Leafs’ new performance department keep Matthews healthy?

And if O'Brien and the new performance department can help Matthews stay stronger, recover better and avoid some of the wear and tear that comes with an NHL season, that could be worth more than another depth signing. This is where I think the Maple Leafs' offseason becomes a little more interesting.

They're not simply trying to find players who can replace goals that have disappeared. They're trying to build a team around Matthews that doesn't require him to solve every problem.

Maybe that's the biggest change of all. The best version of Auston Matthews probably isn't the one who does everything for Toronto. It's the one who gets to spend most of his night doing what he does better than almost anybody else: scoring goals.