Player Discussion Auston Matthews (Captain Edition)

[Laboeuf]

I think you might be able to trade Matthews this summer.
With the cap increase the best time is probably now.
Might get 3 good pieces.

Let’s so Utah and Las Vegas because he was from the area.


Utah I would ask for #4 overall pick, Tij Iginla, and Logan Cooley? Maybe I’m dreaming.

Las Vegas I would ask for no one.

 

[647Hockey]

AM, Marner and JT are worth about $35M of salary.

If available, that's 4 guys that can come back costing about $9M each, and maybe one of them is a good goalie that is available.

(I dont follow contracts, so I dont know how many good guys there are out there that can come back)

 

[mapleleaf979]

Matthews turning into a 3c midway thru the season and into the playoffs is embarassing. On the PP tonight he is at the blueline floating passes around and hanging by half wall, stuck to it. Zero ambition to break the PK down. Then sits on the bench and spits every 2 seconds, looking like he doesnt enjoy playing the game at all, aloof and arrogant vibes.

 

[647Hockey]

Matthews turning into a 3c midway thru the season and into the playoffs is embarassing. On the PP tonight he is at the blueline floating passes around and hanging by half wall, stuck to it. Zero ambition to break the PK down. Then sits on the bench and spits every 2 seconds, looking like he doesnt enjoy playing the game at all, aloof and arrogant vibes.

He's a cherry picker. He waits for the rest of the team to open up the ice and feed him the puck. Or there's a big scrum in front of the net and he jets in from the corner for a rebound. How often do you see him carry the puck in first into the offensive zone? Hardly ever. Compare that to MacKinnon or McDavid who will do that all the time zipping around, breaking down defence and if it's open shoot a hard wrister from 15-20 ft out. Jagr used to do the same thing zooming down the right wing.

AM is an opportunistic goal scorer, not a goal creator. When the big rebounds dry up or Marner cant feed him smooth passes, AM will be invisible because he's not getting chances stemming from other teammates.

 

[BigBlu]

A package of Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly could get what?

 

[KAWAIlllI]

Perfect

You hate to see it @ACC1224

 

[ClarkSittler]

I’m at the point where I believe this guy is too deep into the drugs. He’s never been a big game player, but this is a completely new level of terrible.

You might be right. That thought has crossed my mind too. What else can explain such a terrible, cowardly performance? Wouldn't surprise me at all if he enters the NHL's substance abuse program right after the Leafs lose Friday night.

If he really is injured—which I think is bullshit—then he should get surgery, take the whole season off, and go on LTIR. That way, the Leafs can use the extra cap space to bring in players who actually care about winning in the playoffs.

 

[ClarkSittler]

Who is playing 1c? We don’t even have a 2C

Logan Cooley, when we trade Matthews to Utah.

 

[centipede2233]

He's a cherry picker. He waits for the rest of the team to open up the ice and feed him the puck. Or there's a big scrum in front of the net and he jets in from the corner for a rebound. How often do you see him carry the puck in first into the offensive zone? Hardly ever. Compare that to MacKinnon or McDavid who will do that all the time zipping around, breaking down defence and if it's open shoot a hard wrister from 15-20 ft out. Jagr used to do the same thing zooming down the right wing.

AM is an opportunistic goal scorer, not a goal creator. When the big rebounds dry up or Marner cant feed him smooth passes, AM will be invisible because he's not getting chances stemming from other teammates.

Matthew’s needs to watch clips of pavel bure. That guy was the epitome of creating chances. Bure did it all, skate over the blue line with a clapper, circle the ozone and cut to the net, back door goals, deke a goalie out of his jockstrap. It’s a travesty Matthew’s is the highest paid player this year and an embarrassment for all leaf management past and present who allowed this self centred unapologetic core with no accountability to happen on their watch. I hope I never see shanahan’s name in hockey in any position ever again, what a disgrace of a president.

 

[Mentat]

2G and 8A in 11 playoff games.
13,25M AAV, highest in the show. Captain.

Nagging and recurring injuries or not, these numbers are utterly unacceptable.
Sick and tired of excuses when it comes to AM.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

A package of Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly could get what?

A small McFlurry at Mickey Ds.

And I’d take it because if both Marner and Matthews are back next year, I ain’t watching. We will never win a damn thing with as long as these guys are around. End of story.

 

[thewave]

Finally opening your eyes?

I have sort of beat around it but now I am pretty legit suspicious.

 

[MSZ]

I believe you’re thinking of Kasperi Kapanen

Depends on who you ask, if you watched the US feed it was Matthews.

 

[Zybalto]

Still 2 games to go but he can't even rest on "great 2 way play" the last few games. The next game is huge for Matthews to finish some chances and take things back to Toronto. One of the biggest games of his career for sure.

 

[mydnyte]

Ridiculous. Edmonton made the cup finals mostly on the back of two players. Their core gets it done.

if we didnt have bad pinpong ball luck, we'd have won a Cup already. McDavid is the only reason the Oilers do anything.
if McDavid was feeding Nylander, he'd be a 50+ goal guy too. Assuming we didnt get Matthews if we won the 'fixed' lotto (and it was 'fixed' because the Oilers got extra balls for finishing last 2 seasons earlier even though they already had the #1 overall pick the previous draft, and won with one of those extra balls, the rest were all Leafs balls)

 

[tmlfan98]

At first I thought Mitch was the only problem, and once the parasite was removed a new Matthews would emerge in the playoffs.

Oh boy was I ever wrong. This season changed my view (4 nations performance included). They are both equally as rotten, both parasites. Not just Mitch like I initially believed.

 

[mydnyte]

At least with Marner we can be pretty confident with what we are getting for the next 5 years. With Matthews injury history we have absolutely no clue what we will get and odds are his play will decline much more than Marner's with age and injury history. That's a damn near certainty though anything could happen. Both are going to ask you to give them a blank cheque come contract time, and both don't score in the playoffs. As you said, that and the rest is about the same except the position they play.

Based on that, I would keep Marner 100 times out of 100 and force Matthews out of here like the way Tampa forced McDonagh out despite his NTC so that the Leafs can at least grab some assets for him and not lose him in free agency. Because let's be honest, his next contract will be based on what he's done to date, NOT what he will do in the future. It's almost a guaranteed over payment

so, you would force a #1 C out that over his career is outscoring Ovechkin at the same age/games played, while also being the teams top defensive C

Florida is 'better' because they have low/no tax and players can take lesser deals and take home more $$ and they also manipulated the Cap with IR, and are what 10+ million over the cap the day the playoffs started, that the real reason why Tkachuk sat till the end of the season, he didnt fit under the cap

 

[mydnyte]

He's a cherry picker. He waits for the rest of the team to open up the ice and feed him the puck. Or there's a big scrum in front of the net and he jets in from the corner for a rebound. How often do you see him carry the puck in first into the offensive zone? Hardly ever. Compare that to MacKinnon or McDavid who will do that all the time zipping around, breaking down defence and if it's open shoot a hard wrister from 15-20 ft out. Jagr used to do the same thing zooming down the right wing.

AM is an opportunistic goal scorer, not a goal creator. When the big rebounds dry up or Marner cant feed him smooth passes, AM will be invisible because he's not getting chances stemming from other teammates.

Matthews doesnt have the wheels that McDavid/MacKinnon have, and neither do anyone else in the league, so, you cant expect him to rush like they do, Matthews is similar to Drais, and you dont see him rush through the slot, either, he scores 90% of his goals from the circles.

 

[fahad203]

Matthews doesnt have the wheels that McDavid/MacKinnon have, and neither do anyone else in the league, so, you cant expect him to rush like they do, Matthews is similar to Drais, and you dont see him rush through the slot, either, he scores 90% of his goals from the circles.

You mean more like Laine? Drai is not a great skater but he can carry the puck really well
Matthews doesn't even do that. He just waits for someone to pass the puck to him to shoot

Matthews right now at Stamkos and Laine territory. Waiting for someone else to do all the work so they can just hammer it home. Or used to be. He can't even shoot anymore

 

[TMLAM34]

Watching his post game presser was extremely frustrating IMO. He kept referring to “we all need to be better”, not once did he actually take responsibility and say “I NEED TO BE BETTER, IT STARTS WITH ME AS THE CAPTAIN OF THIS TEAM, MY PERFORMANCE TONIGHT WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND I NEED AND WILL BE BETTER NEXT GAME”.

It’s exactly what Button said, winning is good and loosing is okay, with this core group of players. Extremely pathetic and frustrating.

 

[mydnyte]

You guys for real? Stamkos at least ripped a puck top cheese with a shredded hamstring in the finals. It’s one of the most epic hockey moments of the decade and my lifetime. He might not have been the guy on those Tampa teams, but Matthews couldn’t carry his jock strap.

TB's entire PP was to setup Stamkos for that shot, Leafs PP barely uses Matthews, which drives me nuts.
Caps, same with OV, Oil with Drais ...Matthews has as good a 1-timer as anyone, but, its never setup or an option, and that isnt a Matthews problem.

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

AM, Marner and JT are worth about $35M of salary.

If available, that's 4 guys that can come back costing about $9M each, and maybe one of them is a good goalie that is available.

(I dont follow contracts, so I dont know how many good guys there are out there that can come back)

Unfortunately not a lot of good UFA's this season. Next year would have been the perfect year to tank/retool with Mitch and JT gone, however we don't have our first which is tragic. Hindsight is 20/20 but God trading a 1st for Laughton was terrible. Tres been here before, he knows our offense dries up in the playoffs. Wasting a pick on player like Laughton was a dumb idea. If you can't get someone who can meaningfully create offense keep the pick.

 

[mydnyte]

You mean more like Laine? Drai is not a great skater but he can carry the puck really well
Matthews doesn't even do that. He just waits for someone to pass the puck to him to shoot

Matthews right now at Stamkos and Laine territory. Waiting for someone else to do all the work so they can just hammer it home. Or used to be. He can't even shoot anymore

Matthews used to be a carry it in guy, then he became a give an go guy, but, he isnt getting the puck back after the give. ...this is offensive coaching though.
like our team isnt built for a dump and chase game, we suck at it, but, thats what Berube wants us to be/do ...makes it that much harder.

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

TB's entire PP was to setup Stamkos for that shot, Leafs PP barely uses Matthews, which drives me nuts.
Caps, same with OV, Oil with Drais ...Matthews has as good a 1-timer as anyone, but, its never setup or an option, and that isnt a Matthews problem.

At this point Nylander is a better shooter than AM34. Unfortunately Matthews and Marner are looking him off in the playoffs now just so they can pass the puck to each other and generate nothing.

 

[TMLAM34]

TB's entire PP was to setup Stamkos for that shot, Leafs PP barely uses Matthews, which drives me nuts.
Caps, same with OV, Oil with Drais ...Matthews has as good a 1-timer as anyone, but, its never setup or an option, and that isnt a Matthews problem.

I don’t get why his shot isn’t utilized more on the PP regardless if there’s players in the shooting lane or not… He’s become a floater out there on the PP.

Another frustrating thing with Matthews though at this point, you’d think frustration from not scoring would start to come out at this point and he would take it upon himself to just bomb any pass he gets on the PP and either hope it goes in or it creates a rebound.