Player Discussion Auston Matthews (Captain Edition)

[mikeyz]

I've been saying this for 3-4 years now and it's been mostly met with pushback. The brutal truth is that both Matthews and Marner (especially Matthews) have toxic DNA for an organization hoping to win anything substantial.

Matthews is tissue soft, and has zero dog in him, until it's time to grind for every last dollar. He's great when he can fire lasers uncontested on a random Tuesday night during the regular season. But when it's time to battle in the playoffs, he shrivels up and turns into mush.

He has done it here for 8+ years when it matters and he did it in the 4 Nations when it was time to score a key goal.

The kid just wants to show up, play celebrity, score easy goals, backcheck when he feels like it, and pad the digits. But, come playoffs, you can't count on him. He has no extra gear and his stats pale in comparison to his regular season.

He's like a modern day Rick Nash or Pierre Turgeon but maybe even softer. And, unlike those guys, today there's a salary cap so his obsession with beating up the Leafs for every last dollar prohibits them from surrounding him with legit dogs and winners.

It's a no win situation with this kid if the Cup is what truly matters. If it's just selling jerseys and being entertaining for 82 games, he's gold.

He had a subpar season by his standards so my fingers were crossed that this was the year he saved it for the playoffs. Nope.

I would actually call him the modern day Alexei Yashin.

 

[WilliamInLondon]

I would actually call him the modern day Alexei Yashin.

That's not a bad comparable, actually. Yashin was an incredible talent and actually underrated in hindsight. Problem was that he also only realized about 50% of his fullest potential and was never fully focused on hockey during the season versus his life off the ice.

 

[Chris18820]

AM should never have been made captain. He never struck me as someone who was captain material, especially with some of the off ice stuff in the past. I wonder how JT really felt having the captaincy stripped of him and given to AM. The "passengers" comment is the icing on the cake. The organization needs a culture shift. I would trade him and let Marner walk, he wont be here anyway once his contract is up.

 

[647Hockey]

I had to stat check how bad Turgeon, Yash and Nash did in playoffs.

Turgeon actually is ok. Close to a pt/game in the playoffs and some of those bombs were at the end of his career playing on a defence first Dallas team.

BUT holy shit, Yash and Nash playoff stats drop hard. Nash's goal scoring literally nosedives in half.

 

[Leaffan197703]

Blow up the team built around knies and Cowan and hopefully get some good returns on Matthews and Nylander and stop trading picks because we always get screwed with getting the lemon players and other teams get gold

 

[Mentat]

Pretty sure it´s not going to happen, but i wouldn´t mind trading AM for the highest return possible.
We´re not winning with him as our highest paid player AND Captain.

Mr. Too many passengers.
Disgusting.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Pretty sure it´s not going to happen, but i wouldn´t mind trading AM for the highest return possible.
We´re not winning with him as our highest paid player AND Captain.

Mr. Too many passengers.
Disgusting.

Realistically speaking the beat chance of getting rid of Matthews is to jettison Marner and Shanahan first, and see if that arrogant will waive his NMC as a result

But we don't have our 1sts for years so we can't throw away the regular season regardless of the fact that it's time for another total rebuild.

EDIT: LMAO at the profanity filter

 

[Mentat]

I was pissed off that you only signed a 4y extension.
Now, i couldn´t be happier about it.

Imagine being stuck with this underperforming self aggrandizing negligent soft as 10ply so called Captain and superstar for 8y.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I was pissed off that you only signed a 4y extension.
Now, i couldn´t be happier about it.

Imagine being stuck with this underperforming self aggrandizing negligent soft as 10ply so called Captain and superstar for 8y.

Yup. We dodged a bullet man.

Retool until his contract is up and then San Jose this thing into the sun.

 

[ruaware41]

It's over for the Leafs. The cupboards are empty and we no longer have the money to restock groceries. It sounds like Matthews forced the management's hands in making trade deadline acquisitions, including whining about it to the media and the management capitulated. They forced some acquisitions that to any reasonable person were very stupid. I and most of us wouldn't have traded Grebenkin (rip fallen soldier, deserved better than this team) for Laughton 1 for 1 let alone also add a 1st what fukn stupidity. Fitting the player we traded all that for is named Laughton because Philly's management must have laughed a ton at how they fleeced the guy who must have been living in a tree to make such an atrocious trade.

Acquiring Carlo was also completely unnecessary when Mermis was playing well and looked like he could have fit in pretty well. Matthews and Marner exhibit the saying the inmates are running the asylum. The cupboards are bare and even if they do rebuild - which they won't - these dumb decisions added several years to the process.

Tldr Matthews is a Bettman plant

 

[Nineteen67]

Hopefully they reveal the injuries on locker clean out day.

 

[centipede2233]

One thing I have noticed is how many young American star nhlers had some sort of attitude problem. P.Kane, Kessel, Eichel, M.Tkachuk, but they all kind of got their attitudes in check when they had Toews, Crosby, M.Stone and Barkov as leaders to learn from.

 

[Mr Nogatco]

This wouldn’t surprise me. Matthew’s has an enormous ego. Remember that name check he did in a pre season game a few years back. You can see Matthew’s and marner in their interviews, they are not likeable people. And if the vast majority of fans can see this, im pretty sure their teammates certainly know this. Add in the fact they make the most (outside of nylander) and they don’t impact the game like they should. Patches had the same amount of goals as matthews in the series and he was a tryout!

 

[centipede2233]

View attachment 1038860

That’s the one!

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

Auston calling out his teammates is interesting. Not sure if I like that from our captain after game 7. A divisive comment. He also didn't have much good to say about fans

 

[RayzorIsDull]

I want Byfield back as a center piece in a trade to LA. I think they would bite

If Matthews is the problem how is Byfield the solution? 4 year loser to Edmonton he doesn't get it done either. Or this is what people would say if Byfield lost in round 1 with Toronto.

 

[fahad203]

I had to stat check how bad Turgeon, Yash and Nash did in playoffs.

Turgeon actually is ok. Close to a pt/game in the playoffs and some of those bombs were at the end of his career playing on a defence first Dallas team.

BUT holy shit, Yash and Nash playoff stats drop hard. Nash's goal scoring literally nosedives in half.

Not a single of them were the highest paid player at that time

Highest paid player at their time would have been Lemieux, messier, gretzky, roy, jagr and crosby

Wanna do a comparison to how they played in playoffs ?

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Auston calling out his teammates is interesting. Not sure if I like that from our captain after game 7. A divisive comment. He also didn't have much good to say about fans

"Not sure if I like"

Matthews is a narcissist, a coward and a selfish asshole. He is the opposite of a captain, the opposite of a leader and sets the worst possible example.

He is scum and if he waived his NMC I would be thrilled.

 

[sunstersun]

It all comes back to this guy.

You wanna talk about JT, Marner, Nylander, Rielly, but if this guy was even close to a 60 goal 110 point player at any point in the postseason we'd be aces.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Really top move making his guy captain and hoping it would inspire him.. after all giving him the world before he deserved it worked out so well every other time so far..

 

[Kazparov]

I hope, and expect to her, he is pretty badly injured .. someone very very close to team told me last night he is taking freezing before every period for his back and his hand

Not to sound like an awful person but I hope he was badly injured because he just didn't play anything close to what the top paid player in the league and captain of the Maple Leafs needs to play like.

 

[sunstersun]

My friend made a good point. Matthews should have won game 3 or 4 for us.

Also hearsay, but Mitch and Matthews want to play together. It's a demand almost.

 

[ruaware41]

"Not sure if I like"

Matthews is a narcissist, a coward and a selfish asshole. He is the opposite of a captain, the opposite of a leader and sets the worst possible example.

He is scum and if he waived his NMC I would be thrilled.

Leafs could force him to waive it like TB did with RM but they're all muzzled pr corporate p***yes and won't

 

[RayzorIsDull]

"Not sure if I like"

Matthews is a narcissist, a coward and a selfish asshole. He is the opposite of a captain, the opposite of a leader and sets the worst possible example.

He is scum and if he waived his NMC I would be thrilled.

You may want to take a nap. Calling a guy who is deeply invested into sick kids hospital a coward or whole or narcissist. In fact quite the opposite.

 

[crazyhawk]

The bigger problem is that JT, Matthews and Marner ALL shrink in big games. “If we had great depth, they could carry our invisible stars in games 5-7” is missing the bigger issue, which is the stars turning invisible in games 5-7.

Watching the careers of guys like McDavid, Crosby, Geno, Ovie, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Pasta, Marchand, Rantanen, Patty Kane, Perry, Getzlaf, Makar, etc., these guys so often take over games when it matters, and legitimately dominate. Matthews and Marner are consistently completely useless in the crucial games, JT mostly useless, Nylander has some moments but not enough to compensate. That’s why we lose - we’re built around guys who so consistently give you nothing when it matters most.

You can't mention P. Kane without mentioning J. Toews in regards to players taking over games when it matters. Captain Serious was the heart and soul of the Hawks thru those 3 cups and in comparing to Matthews you can't leave out the 1LC comparison.