LAS VEGAS — Auston Matthews knew exactly what he wanted to say. And with the NHL’s trade deadline less than 48 hours away, it was what needed to be said, too.
“You look at our division in particular, it’s obviously very tight. Management’s going to do the best they can. All we can do is trust in them. Of course, you’d love to see a boost,” the Toronto Maple Leafs captain said before their lone game in Las Vegas this regular season.
Matthews can look within the Atlantic Division and see the teams on their heels — the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lighting — getting the kind of boost he likely wants. The Panthers’ blue line is bigger and deeper with the addition of Seth Jones. And at nearly the same time Matthews made his comment, the Lightning’s forward group got that much better with the additions of Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
And Matthews could also look at the Vegas Golden Knights and see what a deep team that loves deadline swings looks like. The home team got goals from two serious deadline acquisitions from last season, whom it acquired by sending first-round picks Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin out the door.
“I think with the way that we’ve played this year, the position we’re in right now, we feel really confident, really good about our team, our group. But this time of year, you see teams adding and you want to add as well,” Matthews said.
Auston gets us one back pic.twitter.com/DZW0vnjJkB
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 6, 2025
After Tuesday’s ugly 5-2 loss to the Golden Knights, Matthews’ comments feel even more noteworthy. Matthews’ scoring one of the Leafs’ two goals only accentuated the matter. How could anyone watch this team falter against the Knights, whom Matthews called “standard of the league,” and not see glaring room for improvement?
And in that sense, it was difficult not to agree with his assessment of his team.
“I’m sure the management and staff are doing a lot of thinking right now, doing a lot of homework and stuff like that,” Matthews said before the game. “And I’ll just leave it in their hands.”
Matthews isn’t known for taking decisive stands in front of the cameras. His teammates extol his virtues by calling him a lead-by-example type who lets his play do the talking.
This was different. This felt like a captain purposefully saying what he believed needed to be said at a crucial point of the season. And whether or not it was his intention, Matthews might have upped the pressure on his boss, Brad Treliving, to make a deadline deal.
When the best player in franchise history speaks, his Leafs teammates will likely listen.
Will Treliving?
In the lead-up to puck drop and through every intermission, the Leafs general manager paced through the fifth-level halls of T-Mobile Arena on his phone. Treliving was presumably doing his due diligence on the remaining players available before the trade deadline.
Against the Golden Knights, it was clear a trade for just one player wouldn’t be enough to bolster the Leafs ahead of the playoffs.
“I just don’t think we came out ready to play. Maybe we were hoping for an easy game,” Matthews said of the loss. “It’s a good wake-up call for us.”
Consider how the Leafs’ third pair of Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins got beat cleanly late in the first period. Brett Howden pushed by them for a breakaway and shot off the post, reminding everyone what a strong skating, scoring third-line centre can do for a team. That’s the kind of centre the Leafs are after.
And that’s also the kind of play the Leafs hope doesn’t happen against their third pair come playoff time. Adding to the blue line has become an increasingly evident need of late.
The Leafs were then caught on their heels in their own zone. Calle Jarnkrok took a boarding penalty in his zone. And 13 seconds later, the Golden Knights power play capitalized for its third goal of the period.
The Leafs never got back into the game.
One play summarized the difference between a contending team and another team hoping to break through in the postseason. One play summarized exactly what holes need to be filled by Treliving with the clock ticking.
Now, you could make the case that the Leafs deserve a pass for their sluggish play against the Golden Knights. They were playing their third game in four nights. They travelled across three time zones yesterday and are in the middle of having to play seven road games in 16 days.
To the Leafs’ credit, they weren’t giving in to that narrative.
“That’s a tough excuse to use,” Mitch Marner said.
Heavy travel is part of the deal for teams that play where the Leafs want to play: in the Stanley Cup Final. The Golden Knights understand that, having won the Stanley Cup in 2023. At the 2023 deadline, the Golden Knights flipped their 2021 first-round pick for Ivan Barbashev. Barbashev had a primary assist on Howden’s first-period goal.
And so it didn’t matter that the Leafs outshot the Golden Knights 16-8 in the first period. It didn’t matter that there were some noteworthy efforts from the likes of William Nylander, who had his legs all night. Or Matthew Knies, who looked like a veteran dropping the gloves against defenceman Zach Whitecloud in a revenge fight after puck drop.
All that seems to matter for this team licking its wounds after the loss? Whether Treliving will find a way to address the issues that still plague it.
Rushing into a trade in the wake of a loss to a very good team is obviously short-sighted. But what ails this team is what has ailed it all season. The Leafs never properly addressed the need for a solid third-line centre in the offseason. They bet on Jani Hakanpaa getting healthy and bolstering their bottom pair, and he has played just two games all season.
And so Matthews’ comments before the game and his team’s performance illustrated its shortcomings. By the end, the Leafs were deadlocked with the Florida Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division.
“This was a great challenge for us, and we didn’t come close to it,” Leafs coach John Tavares said. “Starting with the leaders and myself, we have got to do a better job of being at the level we need to be.”
Whether those shortcomings are addressed by Treliving promises to be one of the most intriguing storylines league-wide before Friday afternoon.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
