BUFFALO - For much of this last week leading up to the NHL Entry Draft, Auston Matthews talked about his past.

Now, after being drafted first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs, he’s all about the future. It’s a part of what makes Matthews the ideal fit for Toronto, a team obsessed with forward progress and stacked with promising young talent.

Matthews is eager to be among them.

“I just want to win as much as possible,” he said after being drafted Friday night in Buffalo. “It’s going to be a learning curve. The NHL is the best league in the world, so for me, I definitely want to learn a lot and soak in as much as possible and just try to continue to get better and better each day.”

The prospect of what Matthews brings to the ice is as exciting as almost any player in the Leafs system, but don’t call him Toronto’s salvation.

“I mean, hockey’s a team game; there’s really no saviour,” he said. “I want to be an impact player. I believe I can be a franchise centreman, a No. 1 centreman in the NHL.
That’s my ultimate goal.”

It’s a vision the Leafs share for him. Whether management ever seriously considered another player to take at the top, they aren’t saying. Either way, they got their man.

“In our opinion [Matthews] was the best player available,” general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “Not only being the best player, he satisfies a need a centre but he’s a complete player, one who can play 200 feet. I think when you have the ability or the chance to get a player like that, it’s really a no-brainer.”

The frenzy that has been building around the potential of this pick since it was awarded to Toronto in April will not easily be stymied. Expectations will be high, but for a player of Matthews’ calibre, that’s nothing new.

For the team’s part, their presumptions are rooted in where his experiences, and eventual evolution, will take him.

“He can be Auston Matthews — a real good player who’s going to be a dominant centre for [us] with or without the puck,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “[He can] be a championship-type centreman. You know he’s comfortable in his own skin. When you’ve been good for as long as he’s been good, you get used to the spotlight and you get used to delivering under pressure and he’s going to be under that but it’s our job to insulate him to and surround him with good guys, veteran guys and [help him] become a good pro.”

“You can see that he’s a very mature kid, he understands how the things that go along with playing the game,” added Leafs president Brendan Shanahan. “He’s a respectful kid. What we see when we talk to him is someone who loves the game of hockey.”

Calling it a “huge honour” to be part of the Maple Leafs, Matthews says he talked to his coach with the Swiss League’s ZSC Lions, Marc Crawford, about what it would mean to play in Toronto if that situation arose. Now the reality of their conversations will sink in fast.

“It’s a great sports town,” Matthews said. “They’re obviously very passionate. And it’s something you can’t [take for granted]. Everyone has told me when they’re winning it’s the best place in the league.

"Now that I’m part of the organization, I couldn’t be happier.”