Auston Matthews extension gives Leafs elusive long-term stability

Before Auston Matthews signed a four-year, $53-million extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, the team was looking at a murky future.

Having Matthews on the books through 2027-28 is no guarantee of success, whether that means deep playoff runs or the end of the team’s infamous Stanley Cup drought. It does mean that this team is not only trying to remain a championship contender for most of the decade, but it has a strong centerpiece to build around.

On Wednesday morning, the Maple Leafs had just three players under contract past 2024-25: Morgan Rielly, David Kämpf, Calle Järnkrok and Ryan Reaves. While Rielly is a solid top-pair defender, that’s a tough group to hang your hopes on.

It’s likely the Maple Leafs would have retained some of their forward core deeper into the future, as Mitch Marner and John Tavares are locals — who by all accounts want to remain with the team — and William Nylander seems to want to stay in Toronto, too.

If you mapped out all of the scenarios that could happen between now and the end of the 2024-25 season, very few of them would’ve had the Maple Leafs’ top forwards all walking and Toronto rebuilding around a fat pile of cap space. It was technically on the table, though, and now it isn’t.

Because the Maple Leafs’ identity in recent years revolved around their best four forwards and those players — outside of Tavares — were all relatively young, it was always easy to envision the team as a perpetual contender.

With all four approaching free agency, that wasn’t the case.

Also, the simple fact is that not one of Marner, Tavares or Nylander provides the Maple Leafs with the same competitive floor Matthews does. Now the Maple Leafs have one of the best 10 players in the NHL as their top-line center for four years beyond next season — a guy who is simultaneously one of the NHL’s best scorers and…