Weekly Takes - Monday, August 28th Edition (Retroactive to August 14th)

Weekly Takes - Monday, August 28th Edition (Retroactive to August 14th)

1. Ideally, Auston Matthews would have signed an 8-year contract extension that would have taken him through his entire prime, while also doing so at a number slightly ahead of Nathan MacKinnon’s new contract.

That was best-case.

Instead, it is a 4-year contract at a number that is slightly ahead of MacKinnon’s new contract, meaning the only difference is they are going to go through this process again in half-a-decade.

This truly is no different than the last contract he signed. A short-term deal, signed without any drama, that will age tremendously.

The only difference is, we all now know he is signing shorter-term deals so that it keeps the price down. Not because he wants to bolt to another team at the first chance he gets.

2. Matthews coming in at $13.25M sets the ceiling on what Mitch Marner and William Nylander should be paid.

Marner should not come in higher than $12M, while Nylander should not come in higher than $11M.

Asking Nylander to take anything less would be tough, given it is tough to make the case that he is, say, $3.25M worse than Matthews.

It is tough seeing a deal happen between the two sides, given that.

But, if the Leafs can somehow make it work with Nylander, they may very well end up signing him to one of the best contracts in hockey, because Nylander at $10M ish, to me, is a steal.

3. The one thing this contract cements?

Matthews will go down as the greatest Maple Leaf of all-time, owning every offensive record there is to own, outside of assists, which may very well be Marner’s crown one day.

4. The Martin Jones signing is an important one for the Leafs, who needed a capable third-string goalie so that Keith Petruzzelli is not asked to play NHL games this upcoming season.

As is so often the case, it is just going to come down to whether or not Jones can clear waivers.

5. Jose Bautista going up to the Level of Excellence made me think of who else should be up there.

To me, in no particular order, it should be Buck Martinez and Jimmy Key.

6. The Paul De Jong trade was a worthy attempt to add a right-handed bat with some pop + some plus-defence at an important position.

It did not work out and the Jays move on.

Sometimes, it is that simple.

7. The Blue Jays have an elite rotation and bullpen, and a lineup that when there are not runners in scoring position, grades out as high-end to elite.

Yet, due to how unlucky they’ve been with runners in scoring position (mixed in with self-inflicted factors), their playoff odds are all but a coin flip.

That is less than ideal, as they have to make the playoffs this season. Not making it two years ago + collapsing the way they did last year in the playoffs have already led to two potential championship runs going down the drain. Eventually, you just run out of chances in a window.

They have to get in. Simply doing so is not acceptable enough, but they have to get in any way possible and hope their rotation + bullpen can put them on a run in October.

This team certainly does not feel like a playoff team, but once you are in, anything can happen, especially with an elite pitching staff.

That has to be the mindset for the Jays right now.

8. Reality set in for the Cowboys after they lost in the NFC Championship game.

They have a Super Bowl calibre roster with a quarterback who they would win in spite of, not because of.

That left them two options. Be content with simply making the playoffs or do anything in their power to land a potential franchise quarterback.

Mission accomplished with their trade of Trey Lance. Maybe he is a true bust, but if he is even close to being as good as he can be, the Cowboys have just greatly raised their ceiling.

9. My CFB rankings, ahead of Week 1…

1. Michigan

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Flordia State

This is shaping up to be the best college football season in quite sometime, with no clear favourite coming into the year and many more teams (USC, LSU, Alabama, Clemson, Penn State, Texas, etc) in the mix.

10. Toronto FC hiring John Herdman would be a home run hire for a club who needs to bring someone in who can/will clean house, while also building the program back up after doing so.

With his CMNT ties, he would be the man to do so.

10. Herdman leaving the CMNT may not be bad for them either, as he is coming off a World Cup performance that was not all that flattering.

He has done an amazing job building the program up, but maybe someone else is needed to take the program to the next step.

The issue is there is no obvious replacement lined up, more so with the financial struggles the program is dealing with. They can do a lot worse than Herdman.

11. If the report from The Athletic is true (that Lorenzo Insigne stormed off TFC’s practice pitch on Thursday and told Terry Dunfield that he will determine if he is going to play the next game or not), then he should never play for the team ever again.

The inmates are running the asylum in Toronto and it needs to stop immediately. Otherwise, you are not a serious program and everyone involved should be removed from the team.

Which, if we are being honest, should be the case anyway.

12. The Insigne Experiment has somehow been a bigger mess than the Jermaine Defoe Experiment, which is difficult to put into words.

The one thing that it has taught us all, though? That bringing in star players at the end of their prime/star players who are out of their prime, should never happen again in TFC history, no matter how much it may help ticket sales at first.

Find the next Sebastian Giovinco.

13. If you believe Doug Ford when he says he and his cronies are not corrupt for their handling of the Green Belt, then you are accepting that he still needs to resign due to incredible incompetence.

If you do not believe him, and instead believe he is the most corrupt politician in Canada, then you would be right.