Everett general manager Garry Davidson said Monday he expects Auston Matthews to make a decision this week on where he will play during the 2015-16 season.
Matthews, a potential game changer who’s entering his 18-year-old season, is choosing between three options: Everett, the NCAA and the Swiss professional league. Matthews, a big and skilled center from Scottsdale, Arizona, is coming off a record-breaking season with the U.S. NTDP and is projected as the first-overall-pick in the 2016 NHL draft.
Matthews was originally choosing between Everett and the NCAA, but Switzerland entered the picture two weekends ago. If Matthews chooses to play in Switzerland — ZSC Lions is rumored to be the team — he would become the first ever North American player to head to Europe to play professionally during his NHL-draft season.
While Davidson said his gut tells him Matthews will make his decision this week, he didn’t have a sense about which direction Matthews was leaning. Davidson and Everett coach Kevin Constantine have been in contact with Matthews and his family, but they last spoke last week. The Tips are now waiting patiently for this to play out.
One thing Davidson said is that the Matthews camp is not using Switzerland as leverage to force Everett to trade his WHL rights. There have been suggestions that could be the case, and the Tips found themselves in this exact same situation in 2012 with Seth Jones, with Jones forcing a trade to Portland. But Davidson said the idea of a trade has never come up, and that Matthews is very comfortable with Everett as the WHL option.
While all the focus is on Matthews, the Tips can now begin pursuing Tyson Jost, too. Jost, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft who is not committed to the Tips, had his season end Saturday when the Penticton Vees were beat in the semifinals of the RBC Cup, the Canadian junior A national championships. Jost, a skilled center who’s entering his 17-year-old season, is considered a possible top-10 pick in the 2016 NHL draft.
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