Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews has signed a four-year contract extension worth $53 million, the NHL club announced on Wednesday as it hopes to break a championship drought dating to 1967.

The deal will make Matthews the NHL's highest-paid player at $13.25 million per season starting in the 2024-2025 campaign, eclipsing the prior mark of $12.6 million a year paid to Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon.

The 25-year-old American led the NHL with 41 goals in the 2020-21 season and topped the league with a club-record 60 goals in the 2021-22 campaign, capturing the Hart Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player.

Matthews scored 40 goals in 74 games last season, his fifth 40-goal campaign in seven NHL seasons, all with the Leafs.

"I feel fortunate to continue this journey as a Maple Leaf in front of the best fans in hockey!" Matthews posted on social media. "I will do everything I can to help get us to the top of the mountain."

Matthews had one season remaining on his current deal, signed in February 2019. The 2016 NHL Draft top pick and 2017 NHL Rookie of the Year is tied to the Leafs through the 2027-28 season.

The six-time NHL All-Star has scored 299 goals and helped set up 243 others over 481 NHL regular-season games.

He helped the Leafs defeat Tampa Bay in the first round of last season's NHL playoffs, the first playoff series won by Toronto since 2004.

js/bb