Auston Matthews is the Coyotes' reason to live

The NHL's top goal scorer, with Toronto, grew up in Phoenix and only picked hockey because he liked the struggling franchise.

Auston Matthews

Ema Matthews appreciated hockey for two reasons. Her son Auston clearly loved it, and he played in a chilly arena. In July, when eggs are frying on the sidewalks of Phoenix, you want to be near some ice.

Otherwise Ema knew nothing of this silly sport, played with sticks by people on skates. Her husband Brian had a passing knowledge, since he watched the Kings when he worked in L.A. Both of them assumed Auston would wind up playing baseball, since he loved that, too. It was just a little slow for his taste, and from the moment he went to a Coyotes’ game and came home with a jersey, his sights were set on a game that was as foreign to Arizona as a rain gutter.

Today Matthews is not only a lord of hockey’s manor, he is the living justification of Gary Bettman’s Sunshine Strategy. The Coyotes have found Arizona as inhospitable as most living things do, but without them the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t have their best player and the NHL wouldn’t have its best goal scorer.

Matthews, in fact, has been called the GLOAT — Greatest Leaf Of All Time — by podcaster supreme and TNT studio analyst Paul Bissonette. Last week he scored his 50th goal right there in Tempe, in the HO-scale, 5,000-seat arena in which the Coyotes are trapped these days. He added his 51st near the end of the game, and became the fastest American to get to 50 in a season. He is the runaway favorite to win the goal-scoring title for the third time in four years, and if he gets to 70 he’s the probable winner of the Hart Trophy, hockey’s MVP award, for the second time in three years. Next season Matthews will begin a four-year contract extension that will pay him $13.2 million for each of the next four years, which is less than at least four NBA coaches make, but makes him the highest-paid player in the NHL.

The Coyotes’ plans for a grandiose arena were torpedoed by Tempe voters. At that point, the NHL did not load them on the nearest flatbed truck and take them to Houston, Salt Lake City or Quebec City. Commissioner Gary Bettman continued to tout Phoenix as a crucial NHL market, and is waiting for owner Alex Mereulo to nail down details for a new arena to be built on a land mass northeast of Scottsdale. Never mind that Phoenix fans refused to drive to Glendale, on the west side, to sit in a cushy arena and watch their hockey team, before the Coyotes couldn’t negotiate an extended lease. If Mereuelo can’t get this project going, he might have to make a partnership with the Phoenix Suns, who would like to desert their downtown building. And if that doesn’t work out and the Coyotes do move, Bettman is expected to bring an expansion team to Phoenix and start all over again.

He isn’t just indulging the Coyotes because Matthews took a liking to the game, although it certainly helps. He believes that the NHL can divert hockey players from the rest of the American athletic herd, no matter where.

There is some evidence.

Thatcher Demko is the goaltender for Vancouver, and a possible Vezina Trophy winner. He is from San Diego.

Blake Coleman is the leading goal scorer for the Calgary Flames and helped Tampa Bay to two Stanley Cups. He is from Plano, Tex. 

Jakob Chychrun is a proactive defenseman for Ottawa, and is expected to be an All-Star for many years. He is from Boca Raton, Fla.

Trevor Moore leads the L.A. Kings in goals, which is a nice thing for his family and friends, since he hails from Thousand Oaks, Ca.

Seth Jones is a high-minute defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks and the son of former NBA forward Popeye Jones. Like Matthews, he was named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic team, although the pros did not play. He is from Dallas.

Matthew Knies is considered the next headline player for Toronto. He also grew up in the Phoenix area and was a friend of Josh Doan, whose dad Shane is the most popular player in Coyotes’ history. Knies and Josh spent many a day in the Coyotes’ locker room. He, too, was inspired by Matthews.

Matthews could have left Phoenix to play youth hockey in more competitive locales, like Detroit or the Twin Cities, but he didn’t leave until he began playing for the U.S. National Development Team. in his second year there, he scored 117 points in 60 games, which broke Patrick Kane’s record. One of his linemates was Matthew Tkachuk, who grew up in St. Louis where his father Keith played. He called the experience of playing with Matthews “breathtaking.”

After that, Matthews’ usual choices would have been junior hockey or college. But he’d already excelled against college-bound players. Instead, he went to Zurich in the Swiss League and scored 46 points in 36 games there. Along the way he played in the World Championships, against the best competition that wasn’t already occupied with the NHL playoffs, and he scored nine points in 10 games there.

By then Matthews was everybody’s choice to be the first-round draft pick, which belonged to Toronto, not Arizona. He scored four goals in his first NHL game. He is the eye of the 24/7/365 storm of hockey scrutiny that is peculiar to Toronto, since very few days go by without a mention of 1967, the last year the Leafs won the Cup. But Matthews’ ties to home might be one reason he signed just a four-year deal when most players of his caliber are demanding eight. There’s no reason to think the Coyotes will have their situation aligned in the next four years. But by 2029, they might, and Matthews will only be 32.

He still keeps up with baseball, and one reason he wears No. 34 is that David Ortiz also did. What could be more thrilling than wielding the stick that dispels whatever curse is plaguing the Leafs?

At 26, Matthews is just 69 goals short of Mats Sundin, Toronto’s alltime leader. His 351 goals already surpass those of Andy Bathgate, Clark Gillies and Adam Oates, all Hall of Famers. More and more of today’s stars are economy-sized wraiths like Jack Hughes, but Matthews is 6-foot-3 and rugged, and he’s putting more of that muscle into his defensive effort. All of it will be needed in the spring, because the Leafs have goaltending uncertainties and a lopsided roster featuring the Core Four of Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares. Toronto’s first-round opponent will likely be either Boston or Florida.

Matthews broadens the NHL in another way. Ema is from Hermosillo, Mexico, and Auston has campaigned to get an exhibition game in Mexico City, featuring the Leafs.

“Parents (of Latinos) come to me, a lot of them, and say, ‘Oh, my son wants to play hockey,’’ Ema told SportsNet.  “And I say just let them try it. This is a sport that keeps them really busy. Just always let them try and believe me, your kid is going to love it.”

Maybe one or two or five of those kids could join Matthews someday, in the ongoing quest to bring Phoenix something cool.