Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares said what a lot of Maple Leafs fans were feeling Wednesday night.
After Toronto announced a four-year, $53-million extension with its superstar forward Auston Matthews, Tavares, like most who bleed blue and white, was understandably excited.
"Obviously, hearing that news coming in today, it doesn’t get much better than that for us here in Toronto and our fanbase," Tavares said while attending the Hockey Night in Brampton charity event. "I know how much he loves it here."
Tavares knows that if the Maple Leafs are ever going to reunite with the Stanley Cup, which has eluded the franchise since 1967, Matthews is key to making that happen.
"He’s a big part of the future here and just continue on with what he’s been doing and keep becoming the better and better player has every year," Tavares said.
Tavares has played with Matthews for the past five seasons, and the duo helped the Maple Leafs reach the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2004.
The Maple Leafs captain explained he was confident a deal would get done, and knows it will be a relief for Matthews to now just focus on hockey.
"He wants to be here and in our conversation he made that very clear," Tavares said. "It doesn’t surprise and that it says something that he just wanted to get it done and get it put behind him and continue to move forward and not something that everyone has to answer about or talk about or think about."
Instead, Matthews will most certainly now answer questions about how he plans to bring a Cup to Toronto when training camp opens next month.
But for now, both Tavares and Leafs fans can sleep a little easier.
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