Auston Matthews or Jack Eichel?

[BrokenFace]

Matthews is better, but I hate his contract + extension.

 

[Toby91ca]

Approaching is doing a lot of work there.

Yeah, but in 3 years Eichel won't be approaching UFA, he'll either be a UFA without a contract or already signed 3-15 months earlier....point is that Matthews is due to become a UFA 2 years later than Eichel.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I don't think people understand how dominant Eichel was in the playoffs.


Heck, he was dominant in the regular season when healthy. He tried returning from mid-season injury too soon and went the next 12 games with like 1 point. Outside that stretch, he was pacing for ~90 points while dominating all three zones.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Eichel just lead his team to the Cup but you have to look at their complete body of work and take Matthews. Playoff struggles aside, he’s been the better player to date by a fair margin.

Matthews is still a tier higher than Eichel. its fine if you would rather Eichel I wont shit on you for that but Matthews is still the more elite player

 

[TS Quint]

really...in 3 yrs he will be a high end #1 center approaching UFA and $15M will be the new $10M

What % of the cap are you expecting Eichel to get?

 

[Arthur Morgan]

funny seeing so many people speaking about Eichel in a positive way. I guess I'm alone on this one because I still dont trust Eichel,

I wouldn't wanna sign him long term. was 100% worth trading for him because it resulted in a Cup win. but he has shown such a bad attitude in Buffalo over the years I just dunno if he's that guy

I'm fine with Matthews but at the same time Id like to see him show he cares in the playoffs. guy has had one game where he took it over that I can recall. just not good enough.

I just really think Matthews' issue is he is greedy and doesnt care about hockey. playoff hockey isn't paid hockey and it takes away from your summer. I'm not sure if he's the right guy to build around either but I'm not ready to gamble that and let him go.

 

[Skolman]

Shown he can put up 18 points in 13 playoff games in consecutive rounds against back to back Cup winners. Shown he can produce a point in 12 straight playoff games (playing hurt and having to get injured again for the point streak to end) while providing solid defensive play, good enough to help limit Tampa to 0 shots on goal while he was on the ice during a game he played 24 minutes into OT. Not a single chance Eichel would replicate any of those performances.

You Leafs fans honestly act as if Matthews was the only player to ever play through an injury.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Want a sexy poster boy moustache to sell season tickets? Matthews.
Want to win a cup? Eichel.

Done.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

I don't think people understand how dominant Eichel was in the playoffs.


Heck, he was dominant in the regular season when healthy. He tried returning from mid-season injury too soon and went the next 12 games with like 1 point. Outside that stretch, he was pacing for ~90 points while dominating all three zones.

Eichel was a beast at both ends of the ice for Vegas en route to their cup. Should have won the Conn Smythe. Marchy didn't get going until round 2 and he doesn't score all his goals without Eichel as his center.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Eichel was a beast at both ends of the ice for Vegas en route to their cup. Should have won the Conn Smythe. Marchy didn't get going until round 2 and he doesn't score all his goals without Eichel as his center.

Yeah, rewatching those highlights I think Marchessault probably should have buried even a few more goals. Eichel created so many grade A chances for him. Credit to Marchessault for capitalizing on his open chances though.

But Eichel was just incredible transporting the puck from defense to offense during the entire playoffs. I can't recall a more dominant zone exit/entry performance.

 

[Rude Dog]

34

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Matthews for sure.

 

[Stamkos4life]

You Leafs fans honestly act as if Matthews was the only player to ever play through an injury.

The excuses for matthews are endless.

But for this poll, it's still matthews for now.

This can change though.

 

[Snippit]

Yeah, rewatching those highlights I think Marchessault probably should have buried even a few more goals. Eichel created so many grade A chances for him. Credit to Marchessault for capitalizing on his open chances though.

But Eichel was just incredible transporting the puck from defense to offense during the entire playoffs. I can't recall a more dominant zone exit/entry performance.

That was flat out the best hockey Eichel has ever played. If he even grabs a couple of extra goals in the last 2 rounds the CS would easily have been his. And he sure had the chances.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Factoring in contracts, Eichel. Matthews is better, but not by so much that the contracts don’t matter. Eichel also fell off due to injuries. At one point, he was the better player. If he can get back to that, he could be better again, although I doubt he’ll have the better career.

 

[Mrfenn92]

Matthews.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Yeah, rewatching those highlights I think Marchessault probably should have buried even a few more goals. Eichel created so many grade A chances for him. Credit to Marchessault for capitalizing on his open chances though.

But Eichel was just incredible transporting the puck from defense to offense during the entire playoffs. I can't recall a more dominant zone exit/entry performance.

What would be even more incredible is if he leads the Knights to another cup next season for back to back cups. Then where will all the Eichel haters be at then?

Jack is built for the playoffs.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Factoring in contracts, Eichel. Matthews is better, but not by so much that the contracts don’t matter. Eichel also fell off due to injuries. At one point, he was the better player. If he can get back to that, he could be better again, although I doubt he’ll have the better career.

I'm pretty sure Jack was fully healthy in the playoffs, at least to start it before the wear and tear of the 2 month war went on. That was by far the best hockey Jack has played in his career, even well before his neck injury. It's like Vegas and Cassidy completely revived him and gave him new life.

If Eichel uses this playoffs as a cornerstone of his career and a building block and only gets better from here on in, the comparison between Matthews and Eichel will be a lot closer than many realize.

 

[Peat]

Went with Eichel. Matthews has clearly been better to date but I've just got a gut feeling that now he's *crosses fingers* finally healthy and in a winning environment, he can be just as good and he'll be that bit cheaper.

Not to mention Eichel gives off "I want to win" vibes and Matthews gives off "winning would be nice" vibes.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

One is already pretty much a HOF lock based on resume. The other has some catching up to do.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

I don't think people understand how dominant Eichel was in the playoffs.


Heck, he was dominant in the regular season when healthy. He tried returning from mid-season injury too soon and went the next 12 games with like 1 point. Outside that stretch, he was pacing for ~90 points while dominating all three zones.

As a person who watched he 100% did amazing.

I just do my best to avoid recency bias.

If Matthews has another 40 goal season and Eichel does another impressive season with a great playoffs. Then I think there would be huge debate going on with who would you want.

Right now though there just isn't. Matthews dropped 40 and I'd rather have him out on the ice in every situation.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

As a person who watched he 100% did amazing.

I just do my best to avoid recency bias.

If Matthews has another 40 goal season and Eichel does another impressive season with a great playoffs. Then I think there would be huge debate going on with who would you want.

Right now though there just isn't. Matthews dropped 40 and I'd rather have him out on the ice in every situation.

I'm just not sure if Matthews is even capable of playing that kind of possession dominant game, where he's dictating the play everywhere. It's just not his game. Eichel was everywhere the entire playoffs.

 

[Thallis]

Vegas before Eichel joined:

2018: Lost in SCF
2019: Lost in 1st round (because of a questionable major)
2020: Lost in WCF
2021: Lost in WCF
2022 (without him in lineup): 28-14-3
2022 (with him in the lineup): 15-14-5, missed playoffs

People acting like Eichel was the messiah and saviour of Vegas who dragged them from missing the playoffs to winning a Cup, when they've been one of the deepest teams in the NHL for years.

He didn't even win the Conn Smythe, that was Marchessault.

Eichel is a great player but people are massively overrating him after these most recent playoffs.

Matthews is a top 5 center, Eichel is outside of the top 10.

Sooo we're just ignoring what Vegas's IR looked like when he joined and the fact that he was coming back from a major back surgery? Eichel was Vegas's best player in the playoffs but Marchessault won the Smythe because of the narrative. I still voted for Matthews, but you don't need to sell Eichel short. The guy is a great player who very outwardly hates losing and explores literally every option to not do so.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm just not sure if Matthews is even capable of playing that kind of possession dominant game, where he's dictating the play everywhere. It's just not his game. Eichel was everywhere the entire playoffs.

Comes down to playmaking. IMO, Matthews isn't an elite playmaker. He's an elite goal scorer who is solid as a playmaker, but doesn't have the elite playmaking of the other top tier centers.

Hence why when he's on, he can look dominant as a one man show, but doesn't really dominate in terms of making everyone else on his line dangerous. It's also why when he's *not* scoring goals, he's almost invisible whereas these other top tier players can go 1 goal in 10 games and still be dominant because they're racking up assists.

 

[Toby91ca]

I'm just not sure if Matthews is even capable of playing that kind of possession dominant game, where he's dictating the play everywhere. It's just not his game. Eichel was everywhere the entire playoffs.

Maybe, maybe not. At the same time....Matthews sucks because he only scored 40 goals while at the same time, Eichel may not ever score 40 goals in his career.

Thing is, if you don't have 22 games in last playoffs for Eichel, this discussion is probably insanity......22 games shouldn't have that much of an impact. Eichel has 6 goals and 26 points in the playoffs and is 1 year older than Matthews who has 22 goals and 44 points in the playoffs. I totally get that he did better in last year's playoffs than Matthews has yet in his career, but I think Matthews takes WAY MORE heat than he should for not getting the team success in the playoffs. He's part of it for sure, but the HUGE gap between the heat he gets vs. the credit Eichel gets for that one playoff year is a bit much. Does Eichel not take any blame for not being able to make the playoffs his entire career up until last year?