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The Everything Auston Matthews thread

Was listening to a TSN podcast and they mentioned Matthews looked better than Eichel in the WC and he might be the #1 centre for Team USA over Eichel moving forward.
 
Anytime I watched the Young Guns, I barely even noticed Eichel, to be honest.

There's a reason why Eichel dropped off the 1st line with McDavid, and Matthews moved up from 13th forward to that spot.
 
Also, and I'm not suggesting he will be, but one of the guys asked Matthews if he thinks he can be better than McDavid and Matthews didn't back away from that.
 
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Matthews was a better draft prospect than Eichel because skating is really, really huge in today's game and anyone who thinks Eichel is a plus skater only pays attention to him when he's had a chance to get to top speed, which takes him a long time. Matthews is much better at stop/starting, much better on his edges and has an identical top speed (but gets there a lot faster). Better hands, and better IQ.

In this fight, we clearly got the upside of the Schwartz, with Buffalo getting the downside.
 
I've never quite been on board with the Eichel hype, and I think they're different level prospects.

Eichel might have gone #4 in this draft imo, though maybe center bias would have had him higher.
 
There's a lot to like about Eichel, and he's going to be a really good to fringe franchise centreman for a long time. There's a lot of Ryan Getzlaf in there imo with a bit more of a shooting bias.

If by hype, we mean that some people ever, ever thought that he deserved to be in the conversation with McJesus for the #1, then yeah I agree. If the hype was simply that he's got a chance to be a franchise level centreman though, I buy it. Great prospect. Great size, great puck protection, plays with a legit mean streak, absolutely ****ing load in front of the net or along the walls to deal with. Good vision, sweet hands, big shot. The fact that he'l never be more than an average skater is really the only knock on him. It's a fair sized knock when the rest of the package is so elite, but still. Awesome prospect.
 
Eichel's pretty awesome. He put up all time great numbers in every league and scored at almost a 30 goal 60 point pace as a rookie.

Matthews has been better at every single level though, and was far better at the World Championships. There is no reason to think Eichel is a better hockey player.

I think Matthews just showed that he is an impact player today.
 
MindzEye said:
Matthews was a better draft prospect than Eichel because skating is really, really huge in today's game and anyone who thinks Eichel is a plus skater only pays attention to him when he's had a chance to get to top speed, which takes him a long time. Matthews is much better at stop/starting, much better on his edges and has an identical top speed (but gets there a lot faster). Better hands, and better IQ.

In this fight, we clearly got the upside of the Schwartz, with Buffalo getting the downside.
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+1
 
From watching Eichel in this tournament, and the last year, I don't see a player who has a very strong head for the game. He's clearly a physical specimen in terms of projectability and fitness, but the IQ seems to be one of tunnel-vision. Maybe we're all wrong. Maybe he just struggled because he's not a very compatible player to play with -- see McDavid until Matthews was thrown onto his line. But for my money, everything Matthews does is calculated with an ongoing risk / reward play. He knows where to be, where to go, and how to get there without sacrificing positioning. He's a very cerebral player. I wouldn't be surprised if his brain for the game is better than McDavid's; maybe not the same processing speed, but more calculated in terms of what can work, and what doesn't. It's hard to explain because the way McDavid's hockey sense works is that he knows he can get there faster than everyone else, and has the skills to support his next three or four moves. But Matthews IQ seems to be more central towards calculated risk / reward and then executing it.

It will make for an interesting conversation over the next few years. I think over their careers, McDavid will easily outscore Matthews, but I think the overall emphasis Matthews places on his two-way game will be a bit more effective over the duration of a season and in the playoffs. But there's really no argument right now that McDavid is easily the better player.

But for sure, Matthews is already a better player than Eichel is. It's pretty obvious that Matthews isn't that much slower than Eichel.
 
Eichel is a damn good hockey player already.

Matthews looks better at this point but lets wait and see how his first season goes. I have hope that he'll be one of the best American skaters to lace em up.
 
Leafin' said:
Eichel is a damn good hockey player already.

Matthews looks better at this point but lets wait and see how his first season goes. I have hope that he'll be one of the best American skaters to lace em up.
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Yep. No matter how you slice it, 24 goals & 56 points in the NHL as a 19 year-old rookie is outstanding. I don't have much doubt he'll be a good, legit #1 center for a long time.

That Matthews looks like he could be a better player than him just underscores what an awesome player we may have on our hands.
 
Eichel is quite good, but I prefer Matthews' defensive awareness over his. It's seemingly impossible to dislodge Auston from the puck, even in traffic, and his shot is absolutely fantastic. He's the perfect player for Babcock, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him hit 60+ points while challenging for th Selke trophy down the road. Overjoyed at his addition to our team, if we can name a 1D with this year's pick, the "pain" won't be long around here.
 
LeafGm said:
Yep. No matter how you slice it, 24 goals & 56 points in the NHL as a 19 year-old rookie is outstanding. I don't have much doubt he'll be a good, legit #1 center for a long time.

That Matthews looks like he could be a better player than him just underscores what an awesome player we may have on our hands.
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Oh, I wasnt saying he isn't a number one centre, but from what I've seen of the two (granted a larger sample size for Eichel), Matthews plays a very heady game.

Eichel is likely going to be one of the top-10 players on the planet based on his physical attributes alone. And he's exceptionally skilled.

Leafin' said:
Eichel is a damn good hockey player already.

Matthews looks better at this point but lets wait and see how his first season goes. I have hope that he'll be one of the best American skaters to lace em up.
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I would agree if it wasn't for the fact that his NHLe posts him for 43 points, maybe 50 maximum. I think this is wrong. Something I talked to Burtch about. The sample sizes for equivalent players at Matthews age is 0.

KingTucker said:
Eichel is quite good, but I prefer Matthews' defensive awareness over his. It's seemingly impossible to dislodge Auston from the puck, even in traffic, and his shot is absolutely fantastic. He's the perfect player for Babcock, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him hit 60+ points while challenging for th Selke trophy down the road. Overjoyed at his addition to our team, if we can name a 1D with this year's pick, the "pain" won't be long around here.
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60 points is my best guess, but future Selke nominations, I'm not sure yet. He's already a good two way player, so there's a lot of room there I think. We will see.
 
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LeafGm said:
Yep. No matter how you slice it, 24 goals & 56 points in the NHL as a 19 year-old rookie is outstanding.
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Is it? That's pretty much the same pace as Nylander put up, and Willy was crazy snakebit the first half of his games.
 
The biggest thing for Matthews this upcoming season will be how will Babcock use him? Will we see a similar development pattern like we saw with Rielly last season where we limited his offensive game to develop his defensive game(Lack of PP, O-Zone Starts). Is it waste to limit a player the caliber of Matthews initially? Does Babcock start off with Bozak getting the bulk of the O-zone starts and PP to boost his trade value?

I wouldn't be surprised to see Matthews give Babcock no choice but to play him significant minutes.

Thats why i have a hard time guessing point totals for him at this point. If he was playing 1st line + top PP + majority O-zone starts i'd guess Matthews passes 50 points. If he is stuck playing behind a Bozak(to boost trade value) it might limit his scoring total.
 
Yea i'd agree with leafgm there. Nylander is a stud prospect that is getting overshadowed by the fact that we picked him 3 drafts ago and have picked up some franchise level talent in Marner and Matthews since then.
 
19yr olds since 05/06

Crosby 1.52
Stamkos 1.16
McDavid 1.09

that's outstanding.

Kane 0.88
Kopitar 0.85
Toews 0.84

That's really good.

Eichel 0.69
Skinner 0.69
Duchene 0.68
Mueller 0.67
Taveres 0.66
Hall 0.65
Huberdeau 0.65
Yakupov 0.65
Landeskog 0.63
RNH 0.60
E.Kane 0.59
Mackinnon 0.59
Nylander 0.59
Larkin 0.56

I mean that's still really good but nothing too crazy, especially for a guy getting full topline minutes and PP time in a relatively defense-free system.
 
You should reevaluate based on their rookie seasons since they all started right after their draft year -- with the exception of Larkin, Kopitar, Toews, Mueller, Huberdeau, and Nylander.
 
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