Friedman: ‘Nobody’s really sure’ whether Maple Leafs will be able to sign Matthews by July 1 with Dubas gone

Jeff Marek: Do we know of, or do we have a feeling, or is there a sense of where a lot of the key players sit with this team, or is that even a premature conversation right now considering there’s not a general manager that’s been installed?

Elliotte Friedman: I think this, the biggest decision they’re gonna have to make this off-season is what to do with Matthews. I’ll say one thing: I did have one player reach out to me and say that they weren’t even sure if Matthews would’ve signed by July 1 with Dubas, because if they made big changes around the draft, the question became, ‘How would Matthews feel about it?’ But, what [the player] did tell me is that the Leafs, he felt, would’ve been — and this is one of the players on the team — he said to me they would’ve been very confident. Like last year, Pastrnak with Boston. The Bruins didn’t trade him, they believed he wanted to be a Bruin, and they eventually got it done. He thinks that’s what the Leafs would’ve done. If Matthews hadn’t signed, with Dubas there, they would’ve kept him and they believe they would’ve gotten it done. Now, nobody’s really sure.

[…] I heard that Toronto’s exit interviews were pretty tough. I heard that Toronto’s players were pretty blunt about what they thought was said, and that’s something still to work on, but what this player told me is they think you should keep an eye on what maybe unfolds over the next few weeks because he thinks some of the players were really blunt about why it didn’t work.