hamzarocks
Registered User
Neither Matthews nor Draisaitl is used in a primary defensive matchup or paid to go and shut down/attempt at shutting down an opposing teams top players.
Block shots/Hits/take aways/give aways are all good but they don't reflect the quality of defense of a player unless your factoring in expected role. Matthews being a bit better at less meaningful and contributing areas of the game than Draisaitl doesn't erase the wide gap in production between the two players.
The leafs have been a deeper team than the Oilers for pretty much Draisaitls entire tenure. They've been the better coached and better built team. Draisaitl has had his performance hurt playing under a system which isn't as equipped to maximize possession and generation as the leafs system
They are both franchise 1Cs, both are expected to produce amongst the best players in the world. Their defensive impacts are not extraordinary and they won't be playing Danault/pre break out bergeron/Krueger/ even kampf type roles with heavy defensive responsibilities and expectations being to hinder and disturb other teams offenses as much as possible. Defensive contributions for superstar players are always overstated and the importance of their contributions are misrepresented from a defensive perspective. An offensive 1C will be looking to out produce and out generate another 1C, he won't be playing a defensive focus matchup game which will look to shut down the 1Cs chances at the costs of his own.
Mattbews defensive contributions are primarily his line which has another super star being strong at shot generation and out attempting other teams often. Despite that he's a poor play maker and marner a terrible goal scorer for a elite winger. They don't have the ability to convert plays and make tangible impact on the scoreboard unlike Draisaitl who can be not as strong in the offensive zone in terms of quality looks generated but can bury a shot in an instance or find a shooter with one great pass.
The value coming from offensive contributions >>> value from defensive contributions for players like Matthews/Mcdavid/Mack/Drai (the 4 best Centers in the world where none are elite defensive matchup players.
The issue isn't that Matthews not being elite for 13 games this year.
The issue is Draisaitl has been all world in 2019 and 2020 while Matthews paced for 88 and 94 points in those year and didn't show himself to be a top 10 player for the two years combined. It was argued that his lack of playing time hurt him in this comparison. Matthews playing time increased greatly since Keefe was brought in. He looked like he could be a comparable producer to Drasaitl for once since 29 broke out in 2021. Matthews legit had the argument that he was better considering he produced around 13-14 points less pace than Draisaitl while not having 97 as an option.
This year Draisailt is doing what Matthews was doing from a goal scoring perspective and going around goal a game. He won't finish that level like Matthews but the level he's at is one no player in the NHL can match in terms of scoring goals. He's assisting at an higher rate than even that.
A healthy matthews might be producing at a 100-110 point pace but Draisailt will surely beat him by 30+ points after doing the same in 2020 (94 vs 128 paces, and by 17 in 2019 at 88 vs 105 paces). Matthews plays about 2 minutes less per game or 3 shifts. The gap in offensive production won't be reduced by playing 2 more minutes a night for the leafs.
Matthews can't out value Drasaitl unless he out scoring him in goals, and being within 15 or so points at which stage the McDavid factor can be an argument at the latest.
Matthews over drasaitl is a take only leaf fans would take at the moment. Draisaitl for his susrained production as a top 3 player in the league, his incredible value contract which he got being around a top 20 player in the league when signed, and his small bit promising sample of playoff production, he is the better player, asset and piece to build around in my opinion
