Colaiacovo says the Leafs are wasting Matthews without McKenna

Gavin McKenna's name is tied to the Maple Leafs again this week, and it has nothing to do with the draft board.

Carlo Colaiacovo went on First Up Monday and made the case that McKenna "has to play with the team's best player" once camp opens.

His reasoning was blunt. If Toronto's two potential franchise cornerstones are going to work together, the experiment should start in camp, not months later.

The segment tied it straight to Auston Matthews, arguing #LeafsForever should not wait to pair up its two stars.

Context matters here. Toronto finished last season 32-36-14, good for 78 points and 28th overall in the league.

The Maple Leafs also closed the year on a brutal note, dropping seven straight and going 2-7-1 over their final ten games.

Matthews still carries the second highest cap hit in the NHL at 13,250,000 dollars, but he closed the season with 53 points in 60 games.

Nylander, not Matthews, was Toronto's actual engine last year

William Nylander led the Maple Leafs in scoring, putting up 79 points across 65 games with 30 goals and 49 assists.

That's the part getting lost in the McKenna chatter. Toronto's real top producer already exists, and it isn't the guy getting hyped for a camp pairing.

Pairing a teenage prospect with a 13,250,000 dollar center in September is a bold call, whatever the highlight reel says. It's like handing a rookie the offense before a single training camp snap gets thrown.

Jim Hiller takes over behind Toronto's bench after being hired in June, and he hasn't tipped his hand on line combinations yet.

That leaves the McKenna-Matthews pairing exactly where it started: a pundit's pitch, not a Maple Leafs lineup decision.

Would Hiller actually gamble that big before a single exhibition puck drops? That's the debate First Up just reignited, and camp is going to answer it one way or another.

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