Top Prospect Signing (Jul 21)

It sort of missed my window of writing yesterday, so we'll give it a quick post this morning, since it is so very important...

The 1st overall selection in June's entry draft has finally been secured and if you believe what was said in the news, it really didn't take all that long.

Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs got pen to paper on Thursday afternoon, going through the formalities of signing the 3-year entry-level deal, worth the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement.  For the mathematical purposes, Matthews will be a $925,000 cap hit for the regular season and then his bonuses, or what he has earned of them, will be tacked on at the end of the year and formulated into the cap hit, looking for bonus overages that will carry over into the next season.

The road to the NHL that Matthews has taken has stifled a fair bit of the hype, but make no mistake, from what we've all seen from this kid, be it the bits and bytes, from his time in Europe to the international tournaments, it's hard to deny that he has the whole package.

My early projection for Matthews, stems more from the team that's around him, as it doesn't excite me today.  This kid will be a talent, he'll get top wingers to play with, like James Van Riemsdyk, and he'll do pretty well.  I just don't see him carrying Toronto to the promised land right away.  The 60-point range is where I'm starting him today, which still puts him into a good pick at the pool draft.