Auston Matthews does not need to fight

Superstar centre Auston Matthews came in for criticism for refusing to drop his gloves against Philadelphia Flyers' Travis Konecny but as the Maple Leafs franchise player, Matthews should stay focused on offensive production and let his teammates handle the rest.

Video Transcript

- Um, I don't know who needs to hear this. Um, Auston Matthews doesn't need to fight. He doesn't need to. There was a big talk after the Philadelphia Flyers game when Travis Konecny was trying to get Matthews to fight. That's what Travis Konecny wanted Matthews to do. Matthews does not need to fight. He's our superstar center, he's our franchise player, we don't want Matthews to fight. We want him to score goals, we want him to be a great defensive player, save some goals, he had a lot of good moments over the last couple of games. We don't need Matthews to fight. That's why I don't understand the whole rhetoric.

What if in another universe, Earth 199, Matthews grabs Travis Konecny and punches him a couple of times, busts his hand on his helmet and then he's out for like a month. Cool, was it worth it? Was it worth it then? It's such backwards talk when it comes to the Leafs where, oh the Leafs don't have enough players that are defending Matthews. Oh, but when players are defending Matthews, oh Matthews needs to fight his own battles. Like, no. There are players that have specific roles, Matthews is doing his role right now. He's scoring goals, he's playing great, and again it's leading to success. So I don't need Matthews to fight and I don't think you should want Matthews to fight either.