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Is Auston Matthews still a top 5 player in the world?

Is Auston Matthews still a top 5 player in the world?

  • Yes he is

    Votes: 21 7.1%

  • No but he's top 10

    Votes: 138 46.8%

  • No he's not even top 10

    Votes: 83 28.1%

  • No but he's top 25

    Votes: 41 13.9%

  • No but he's top 50

    Votes: 12 4.1%
  • Total voters
    295
bert said:
Its not dishonesty to think Auston Matthews is not a top 5 player over the last 5 years in a league that has Mackinnon, Mcdavid, Makar, Kucherov and Draisaitl. They have all done it in the playoffs thats what matters most and he has been a no show.

You are participating in this because you are trying to argue something that is wrong because he plays for your favorite team.
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Matthews plays for the Caps? Shocking I know, but maybe it’s the random fans being objective and the Sens fan that’s actually biased against the Leaf player.
 
I don’t think there’s really a legitimate argument for putting him top 5 at this point and that’s even excluding the playoffs. Including his playoffs I think he drops at least a few more spots.
The top five seem pretty well agreed upon as:
McDavid
Kucherov
McKinnon
Draisaitl
Makar

And if we include playoffs 3 of those guys have Cups and McDrai have some of the most dominant playoff stats in history with McDavid winning a Conn Smythe. Matthews rather pedestrian playoff numbers and his abysmal record in elimination games has to be taken into the equation imo.
 
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I would say he's comfortably out of the Top 15, injuries, decline in production and poor playoff reputation baked in and all... and it's up to him to prove that he can get back into the Top 10, Top 7, Top 5 where he has the talent to be, where he was building up his resume, but has since basically fallen off.

My concern is he's also not very transparent on his injuries, which makes you wonder about the severity of it and if it might cause premature, permanent and dramatic decline.
 
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McDavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, and Kucherov are the consensus top-4.

You could probably make an argument for a few guys at 5 (Matthews, Pastrnak, Makar, etc..) but I voted top-10 because I personally don't have Matthews at that spot, but he's in that "2nd tier" either way.

Edit: I assume most have Makar in the top-5, leaving Matthews somewhere in the 6-10 range.
 
HFpapi said:
There's zero argument for him being in the Kucherov/Mackinnon'Draisaitl tier anymore like he was once considered part of.

Those 3:

1) Don't have down seasons
2) Aren't always injured (tho granted Kuch did miss an entire season)
3) Mostly importantly, those 3 are massive playoff performers in contrast to AM who isn't even just average but shrinks away into irrelevancy.

He also has zero argument against Conn Smythe winner and (soon to be) 2x Norris winner Makar. So no, he is absolutely not a top 5 player. This is all coming from a Leafs fan btw.

That said, people are going to (as always on HF) swing the pendulum way too far the other direction. He's a 2x 60+ goal scorer, a Hart winner, a 3x Rocket winner. He's a top 10 player. There aren't many players who can conceivably win the Hart next year. Matthews is one of them that can.
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I would put Matthews right behind the big 4 forwards. Ahead of Pastrnak.
 
Regal said:
You argued he wasn’t even in the top 5 in the regular season outside of one year, and now you’re bringing up playoffs again.
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Do the playoffs not count?! Is this real? I said he had one top 5 regular season and thats what you are trying to argue. Are you still arguing that he has been a top 5 player over Mackinnon, Draisaitl, Mcdavid, Makar and Kucherov? If not then why are you still here?
 
bert said:
Kucherov is quite easily in the 1st tier absolutely ridiculous to not have him there. he has 378 points over his last 3 seasons. He has lead the playoffs in scoring 3 times and has 171 points in 152 playoff games.
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sorry. tier 2. score a couple more playoff goals next year and hes got a shot.
 
bert said:
Its not dishonesty to think Auston Matthews is not a top 5 player over the last 5 years in a league that has Mackinnon, Mcdavid, Makar, Kucherov and Draisaitl. They have all done it in the playoffs thats what matters most and he has been a no show.

You are participating in this because you are trying to argue something that is wrong because he plays for your favorite team.
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Holy cow are your posts misleading and wrong headed.

I’m a friggin Capitals fan. Look through my post history (tons in the Caps forum. None in the leafs forum). I don’t give the slightest crap about the leafs.
 
Midnight Judges said:
Holy cow are your posts misleading and wrong headed.

I’m a friggin Capitals fan. Look through my post history (tons in the Caps forum. None in the leafs forum). I don’t give the slightest crap about the leafs.
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Hmm but you do have a vested interest in Matthews being seen in good light. A goalscorer like Matthews being propped up is good news for Ovechkin.

You’re one of the smartest posters in HF history, so I think you’re playing a deeper game here.
 
Last edited:
In no particular order:

McDrai
Barkov
Makar
MacKinnon
Kucherov
Pasrnak

These guys are undoubtedly ahead. No arguments can be made otherwise in AM's favor.

I'm sure there are more.
 
I don’t doubt he’ll have a nice bounce back season during 2025-2026, but he’ll again struggle to break his playoff career high of 5 goals and 11 points in a single playoff run.

Here’s a fun one.

He could pot 5 goals and 4 assists in his very next playoff game and he would still be under 1 PPG heading into his 70th career playoff game, and remain well under half a goal per game.

I’m not sure there’s another player of similar caliber in history who experiences such a punishing decline between regular season and postseason production.
 
He never was. He’s arguably a top 5 forward, but it’s pretty clearly McDavid, Draisaitl, Kucherov, and MacKinnon as the big 4 forwards in the league, and then Makar rounds out the top 5 skaters. Him, Pasta, Barkov, etc are in the next tier
 
I'll take Barkov over him too. D-men and goalies are generally harder to quantify, so I won't go into specifics there... Eichel's playoff resume is tempting.

MAYBE Pasta and Rantanen.

Definitely close to top 10 if not top 10. I'll give him grace with the maybes and put top 10.
 
McDavid, Draisatl, Makar, MacKinnon and Kucherov deserve to be the top 5, on whatever order (with McDavid at the top)

Matthews, however, is in the top 10
 
Fatass said:
What did he do in the playoffs that year? Or are you only applying the regular season to how you tier players?
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Im not putting him in a tier myself. Im saying, between that stretch of 3 years, when he scored 60+ goals and 100+ points twice, and won a Hart, on this forum and in the media he was widely considered a top-5 player.
 
Fataldogg said:
Im not putting him in a tier myself. Im saying, between that stretch of 3 years, when he scored 60+ goals and 100+ points twice, and won a Hart, on this forum and in the media he was widely considered a top-5 player.
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The Hart is a regular season trophy. Imo playoffs matter too.
 
Fatass said:
The Hart is a regular season trophy. Imo playoffs matter too.
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It does, but the Hart is the most prestigious individual trophy someone can win. Winning a Hart is a lot more important to someone's resume then playing decent in the playoffs and losing in the Conference Finals. Unfortunately for Matthew's, he has never gotten that far, and his playoff resume leaves a lot to be desired.
 
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