Auston Matthews is still wearing the Toronto Maple Leafs captaincy, and this offseason that kind of loyalty stands out.
While other stars around the league have pushed for trades or landed elsewhere, Matthews has stayed put in the toughest market in hockey.
He closed last season with 27 goals, 26 assists and 53 points over 60 games, adding five power play goals and three game winners along the way.
The Maple Leafs, though, gave him little to work with. Toronto finished 32-36-14 with 78 points, ranked 28th overall and dead last in their division at eighth.
A minus-46 goal differential and a seven-game losing streak to close it out tell the real story here.
Matthews cooled off down the stretch too, managing just one goal and five assists over his final 10 games for six points and a minus-8 rating.
Marner is gone, and the Leafs moved on from their coach too
Mitch Marner is no longer part of this. He now plays for the Vegas Knights, another marquee name who walked away from Toronto's pressure cooker.
Toronto didn't stop there. The organization brought in Jim Hiller as head coach this past June, a fresh voice for a team trying to climb out of 28th overall.
That's the environment Matthews chose to stay in. Not a contender. Not a soft landing. A rebuild-adjacent roster in the most scrutinized city in the sport.
Morgan Rielly still logs heavy minutes on that blue line, finishing with 36 points, while Jake McCabe chipped in 25 as the veteran pairing carried the workload.
Is that admirable or just business as usual for a captain who signed the deal? Depends who you ask.
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Fans pointed to the wave of stars requesting out of Canadian markets this year as proof that Matthews staying put means something.
Whether that loyalty translates into wins under Hiller is a different question, and Toronto's front office has a lot of roster work ahead before training camp answers it.
Does Auston Matthews staying in Toronto through a 32-36-14 season prove real loyalty?
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