New York (AFP) - Auston Matthews agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $58.17 million with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday that will make him the second highest-paid player in the National Hockey League.
The 21-year-old American center, the rare player to reach the NHL from the Arizona desert after growing up watching the then-Phoenix Coyotes, will make an annual average of $11.634 million, trailing only the $12.5 million of Edmonton's Connor McDavid.
Matthews, who could have become a free agent on July 1, has scored 23 goals and assisted on 23 others this season for the Maple Leafs, who rank second in the Eastern Conference with 67 points after 32 wins in 52 games, trailing only league-leading Tampa Bay.
Matthews, who has 97 goals and 81 assists in 182 NHL games, won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's best rookie for the 2016-17 campaign and helped Toronto reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his first two seasons.
The Leafs hadn't reached the playoffs in back-to-back campaigns since 2003 and 2004 and haven't won a playoff series since 2004, losing in the first round to Boston last year and Washington in 2017.
The Leafs must also look to work out a new deal with Mitchell Marner, who has 20 goals and 43 assists this season. His agents have said they will wait until after the season for contract talks.
Toronto has handed out other big contracts. The Leafs signed free agent center John Tavares to a seven-year deal worth $11 million a season last July that now falls to third overall in the NHL. In December, they inked William Nylander to a six-year deal worth $6.9 million after he missed the first 28 games of a the season.
The Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, enduring 50 seasons of futility.
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