Is Auston Matthews One of the Most Overrated Players in Recent History?
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Andrei79
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- Jan 25, 2013
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With his size and strength, he should be dominating in the post-season, but he doesn't use it nearly enough to his advantage. He lacks intensity, which is a big no no as the team leader.
Andrei79
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In what universe is he a better two way center than Barkov ?
- Apr 3, 2025
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3 goals in his last 20 playoff games
Me too, I don't see how anyone who has watched Mack in the playoffs or looked at his numbers in the playoffs could disagree
No one's denying his regular season production. One of the great goal scorers of alltime, but it's more because he get's mentioned in the same sentence as guys like Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Pastrnak, etc. Those guys all step it up when it really matters and carry their teams to victory when needed. AM rarely looks like the best player on the ice in the big games. This might be a hottake, but if you take him out of this leafs team, I don't think it makes them significantly worse. And let's not talk about how out of place he looks as the captain of a cup contending team.
Bottom line is, when you get as much media and fan (mostly leaf fans) hype as he does and fail to perform on the big stage, you deserve to be labelled overrated. Unfortunately for him and Toronto, I think we've already seen the best of him and it'll just be downhill from here as he gets older and with his injury history.
Divine
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- Dec 18, 2010
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So what’s he rated as? Gretzky or Lemieux?
He’s rated as one of the top players in the league and he continues to be that, except this season with an injured wrist that significantly lowered his shot speed. People don’t realize he’s injured and his shot is significant weaker than in previous years and compare him to a healthy Matthews.
It’s the lowest goal scoring season of his career this year, yes that includes his rookie season and multiple covid shortened seasons. He didn’t go to Germany for a quick vacation.
Last year, the opposing coach was calling him the best player on the ice in the series until he got injured and started missing games.
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Is he in the same category as the guys mentioned above if he can't produce when it really matters? This isn't just about "this season." We now have a large sample size with him, but all we ever hear are excuses. The greats of the game are remembered for what they did in the playoffs to help their teams win the big prize, not for regular season production.
Divine
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Well the majority of the guys you named don’t produce when it really matters. Draisaitl played Florida last season and had 0 goals and 3 points in 7 games. Matthews has the same stats against Florida in 4 games.
Most of them don’t have Cups. MacKinnon was third on his team in scoring when they won, behind a defencemen, but gets all the credit because he skates fast.
These are absolutely crazy takes, I'm sorry.
Divine
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Draisaitl against Florida: 0 goals, 3 assists in 7 games? Is that performing when it matters?
MacKinnon was third on his team in scoring when they won, but he’s their best player and performs when it matters?
Pastrnak has similar career playoff stats to Matthews.
Which playoff performers are you talking about?
It's funny you cherry pick that, when he was absolutely instrumental in them getting that far. Watch Drai in the playoffs the past few seasons and compare him to AM. Night and Day difference. And you saying most of the guys I listed don't perform when it matters and don't have cups. I guess we're forgetting Kucherovs dominance in Tampas cup runs, and the MacKinnon thing I still can't believe you said he gets credit for that cup win because he skates fast...
Divine
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Yes, he plays weaker competition. He’s never won anything though.
There’s a reason all the highest performing players in the postseason are almost always in the West.
Even Kadri and Hyman looked bad when they were facing Vezina winners every playoffs and then their stats significantly improved in the playoffs as soon as they went to the Western Conference.
pb1300
#CatsAreComing
Dumais
It's All In The Reflexes
- Jul 24, 2013
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Gives me Crosby vibes....
Hard to be overrated when he's arguably the best center (I know, I know; McJesus) in the game.
Hard to be overrated when he's arguably the best center (I know, I know; McJesus) in the game.
TLEH
Pronounced T-Lay
Playoff PPGs since 16/17:
Draisaitl - 1.48
MacKinnon - 1.31
Kucherov - 1.21
Pasta - 0.97
Matthews - 0.89
Playoff GPGs since 16/17:
MacKinnon - 0.60
Draisaitl - 0.55
Pasta - 0.43
Matthews - 0.38
Hockey Outsider
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- Jan 16, 2005
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This is a perfect example of how Matthews gets overrated.
Matthews is a great player, of course. But it's wild to compare him to Draisaitl (as a playoff performer). Sure, Draisaitl looks bad if you cherry-pick a single series. But why cherry-pick when we have almost a decade of results to consider? Going back to 2018, Draisaitl has massively outscored Matthews in the playoffs (1.48 vs 0.89 points per game).
You can adjust both players stats based on the quality of the competition they face. The gap is probably somewhat smaller, but there's no way it bridges a gap of 66% in per-game production.
(Let's pre-empt the usual excuses. The gap remains even if we drop the secondary assist. In terms of primary points, Draisaitl is at 1.15 and Matthews is at 0.67 - in fact the gap is slightly larger now. And in terms of ice time, they're within 3 seconds of each other at ES. Draisaitl does get about 10% more PP TOI per game, but he scores more than twice as many PP points per game, so the difference in ice time doesn't come close to explaining the gap).
"Overrated" doesn't mean bad. Matthews has been at least a top ten player throughout the 2020's (and sometimes even higher). At the same time, we need to be honest about his weaknesses. Matthews has been a disappointing playoff performer so far. You can accept that (and expect more from the 2nd highest player in the league), or choose to ignore reality. Making ridiculous comparisons (ie comparing him as a playoff performer to Draisaitl or MacKinnon) does nothing but reiterate the notion that Matthews is overrated.
(Matthews is still only 27. He has time to turn things around. We can acknowledge that he's been disappointing in the playoffs so far, but it's not set in stone. He can turn things around - perhaps even as early as Wednesday night).
Fatass
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- Apr 17, 2017
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Add to Matthews lack of scoring his lack of toughness and he’s not a playoff guy. Some guys run to a fight; some run away. If Matthews can start to get into the fight, then he will be better.
The Gr8 Dane
L'harceleur
Guy needs to get a tummy ache again so he can sit out the next few , worked for the leafs against Boston , until he came back and they lost
Voight
#winning
PPG in this years playoffs, 58 in 65 for his career.
Of course the lack of goals makes a difference given hes arguably the leagues best at scoring goals. Is he Rick Nash in the playoffs no? Could he be better? Of course.
Of course the lack of goals makes a difference given hes arguably the leagues best at scoring goals. Is he Rick Nash in the playoffs no? Could he be better? Of course.
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