“I think he’s the greatest player the Leafs have ever had”: Author Kevin McGran on his new unauthorized biography of Auston Matthews

When Auston Matthews made his NHL debut in 2016, he scored a record-setting four goals in his first game—the first player to do so in league history. Since then, the Toronto Maple Leaf has captured the hearts of Canadian hockey fans (especially championship-hopeful Torontonians).

In his new book, Auston Matthews: A Life in Hockey, author and Toronto Star sports reporter Kevin McGran chronicles the many sliding-door moments that led to Matthews’s eventual drafting to the Leafs. The 28-year-old was born in San Ramon, California, and spent his childhood in Arizona—two warm locations not exactly known for producing hockey players. Now, Matthews has spent nine seasons with the Leafs and took over as captain in 2024. Off the rink, he’s become known for his friendship with Justin Bieber, his fashion choices and his charity work with the Hospital for Sick Children. Here, McGran tells us more.

Why did you want to write a whole book on Auston Matthews? In my mind, he’s the greatest player the Toronto Maple Leafs has ever had. This team has been around for more than 100 years, and this guy who started skating on synthetic ice in Scottsdale, Arizona, is their greatest player. All the best hockey players ever come from snowy markets where hockey is everything and there’s an infrastructure to help kids along. This guy comes from a desert with no infrastructure, and not only does he make a name for himself in hockey, but he’s the best player in the most storied franchise’s history. I grew up in Toronto, I grew up in hockey, and I know what the Leafs mean to the city. For me to be able to present this player in the history of the Leafs and what that means, I think that’s an important story.

Your book was written without the participation of the Matthews family. What was it like to write without the full involvement of your main subject? Auston was the first person I told that I was writing a book about him. He said something funny, like, “It had better be good.” I remember laughing. His agent, Judd Moldaver, didn’t really want the book written, at least not at this juncture of Auston’s career. Auston answered my questions, typically through his daily media availabilities, when he speaks with the sports press. I reached out to his parents a couple of times but didn’t hear back. Out of respect for the family’s wishes, I didn’t contact any other relatives—his family is very humble—but other people around Auston did talk to me. Those interviews included coaches and some teammates from his youth, his first agent, coaches and teammates in the US development program, the team in Switzerland, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

What was unique about Matthews’s upbringing? There really aren’t many Latino hockey players in the league. If you’re from Mexico, it’s more likely that you’d play soccer or baseball. If you’re from Arizona, you play baseball or football. Auston’s parents met when his dad, a technician, was fixing something on the plane that Auston’s mother was working on as a flight attendant. His dad was smitten and learned Spanish within six months just to date her. That alone is a sliding-door moment—none of this would have happened if his father hadn’t taken that job on a plane flying from Mexico to Los Angeles.

You also spend time on his choice to play pro men’s hockey at the age of 17, in Switzerland, which was unusual given that most American NHL hopefuls play junior hockey or commit to a college at this age. Why did that set him apart? He almost wasn’t allowed to go to Switzerland because he hadn’t graduated high school yet. The team said he had to get his high school diploma first, so he had to race very quickly to get his degree in the summer. Graduating high school on time isn’t typical of a lot of hockey players that know they’re going to be in the NHL. Auston lived away for a year, so he got a broader experience than a lot of American teenagers would have.

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Let’s talk about his game. You start the book with his four-goal NHL debut. What else do you foresee in Matthews’s career? Hardly anybody scores four goals in a game, let alone your first game. That’s the moment that made everybody go, “Wow, what else can he do?” The first time I saw him play, he was sixteen. I was covering a World Junior tournament, and I said, “This kid’s winning a Stanley Cup.” I think he’s going to win an Olympic gold medal. He’s got a lot more to do—he’s basically only halfway through his career.

You also write about his personal life, including his disorderly conduct charges in 2019, when Matthews and his friends tried to enter the car of a female security guard in the early hours of the morning. What do you think those aspects of his story say about him? I think he handled the incident with the security guard very poorly. When you do wrong and the whole world is watching, that’s a learning experience. I think he learned a great deal about how to handle adversity and recover after making mistakes. I don’t think there’s a way to know for sure that it cost him the Leafs captaincy then, because Tavares was captain at the time, but it certainly played a role.

How about his level of celebrity and his friendship with Justin Bieber? You’re not really used to seeing a hockey player be in that stratosphere with Justin Bieber and MMA fighters. But he certainly made himself part of the popular culture universe—or was dragged into it. I think it’s probably good for him to be friends with Bieber, because they both kind of went through the same things together in terms of mass adulation with no privacy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.