Is Auston Matthews the greatest goal-scorer in hockey history?

[FrozenJagrt]

Mike Bossy is/was the best.

He was the best.

Until Gretzky entered the league.

 

[Neil Racki]

To be fair - pretty much all those players also played in higher scoring environments too. When comparing performance relative to his peers (10th/30th place goalscorers), Ovechkin's 2008-2010 3 year peak can go toe-to-toe with most 3 year goalscoring peaks in history (and is better than any 3 year period Matthews has done).

But overall you're right. Ovechkin's real goalscoring only peak was from age 27 to 34 where he won 7 rockets in 8 years.

Brah .. Matthews is on pace for 9 rockets in 6.9 seasons

 

[Sugi21]

 

[authentic]

Bedard: 9 goals in his first 13 games

Matthews: 6 goals in his first 13 games

Let’s see, one’s total ice time is 19:22 with 4:14 on the powerplay in a 3.15 goals per game NHL.

The other averaged 17:38 with 2:27 on the powerplay in a 2.73 goals per game NHL.

Funny how everyone wants to adjust when it doesn’t favour Matthews (but then ignore things like powerplay time in comparisons with Ovechkin) but here it doesn’t matter when one player has a massive advantage in both.

I give Bedard full credit though as he’s only just 18 years old and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him close to 50 goals on the season and become a better goal scorer than Matthews eventually, but just putting things into perspective here for their first 13 games.

And before someone brings up linemates, playing with rookie Hyman and rookie Connor Brown and being on the 2nd PP unit is not an easier situation to produce offense in than Bedard currently, especially when the league averaged almost half a goal fewer per game.

 

[Walking The Cow]

Clearly, you have never heard of this guy:



Learn your history, bucko.

 

[Namikaze Minato]

Brah .. Matthews is on pace for 9 rockets in 6.9 seasons

9 rockets X 6.9 seasons= 420 goals bruh

 

[Golden_Jet]

Just about every great goal scorer in NHL history had stats as good as or better than Ovechkin up to the age of 26.

With two exceptions, regression occurs in the 30s. Come back to this thread when Matthews retires in 12 years and not a day sooner.

25 or less - click on goal’s column
OV 7th
Matthew’s 9th

NHL Most Career Points By A Player With Age 25 Years Old Or Less | StatMuse

Wayne Gretzky has collected the most career points by a player 25 or younger, with 1,459 points.

www.statmuse.com

 

[KevinFinnerty]

give me stats adjusted for GPG per Era. Ovechkin blows him out of the water as a goal scorer. he could deke through your whole team, power through your whole team, or just straight up beat your HOF goalie from the blueline.

 

[filinski77]

give me stats adjusted for GPG per Era. Ovechkin blows him out of the water as a goal scorer. he could deke through your whole team, power through your whole team, or just straight up beat your HOF goalie from the blueline.

Based off of my assessments, up to Matthews current age, Ovechkin has only been slightly ahead of Matthews as a goalscorer. He certainly doesn't 'blow him out of the water', but it's a pretty clear (but small) gap.

The real gap is what Ovechkin did post-26 that is what will be hard to overcome (as that's Ovechkin's goalscoring peak).

As a player overall, definitely a totally different situation as Ovi's first 5 years are definitely on a different level though.

 

[Statto]

Is Auston Matthews the greatest goal-scorer in hockey history?

I have seen some Matthews fans put forth this hypothesis but I am not sure.

I think Lemieux, both Hulls, Ovechkin, etc. rate as better goal-scorers.

Goal scoring has never been easier and even ignoring that no. He’s not even the best goal scorer today.

 

[johan f]

Gretzky, Mario, Hulls, Jagr, Bossy. To name a few…

 

[CokenoPepsi]

Ask me again in 10 seasons if he still doing this

 

[Garbageyuk]

Too early to tell, but at the exact same age as Matthews is right now Ovechkin, who is about to become the greatest goal scorer of all time, had 308 goals. Matthews right now has 312 goals. So he's on the right track.

Ovechkin didn’t play his first NHL game until after he turned 20, but nice try.

It's not an unreasonable question. He is most certainly in the conversation.

He's ahead of most of the all-time great goal scorers in goals/game. Ignoring numbers 3 and 4 on the list below, who played almost a century ago, Matthews is only behind Bossy and Lemieux.

View attachment 766593

He is well ahead of his contemporaries who are considered great goal scorers - McDavid, Pastrnak, Draisaital, Connor, Rantanen.

View attachment 766592

So if you accept that Matthews is the greatest goal scorer of his generation, because it's fairly obvious he is, then it's a matter of comparing eras to answer the question of who is the greatest in history.

As I stated above, Matthews is definitely in the conversation, if he continues producing.

You realize that his g/gp is going to drop significantly as he ages, right?

 

[Bradely]

I am starting to beleive Austin Mathews created hockey....

 

[authentic]

give me stats adjusted for GPG per Era. Ovechkin blows him out of the water as a goal scorer. he could deke through your whole team, power through your whole team, or just straight up beat your HOF goalie from the blueline.

What a horrible take. Their first 7 seasons adjusted for era saw a 7 goal difference per team per season, and Ovechkin played more than double the powerplay time. If anything a proper adjustment favours Matthews and he’s still ahead up to the same point of their careers

 

[authentic]

Based off of my assessments, up to Matthews current age, Ovechkin has only been slightly ahead of Matthews as a goalscorer. He certainly doesn't 'blow him out of the water', but it's a pretty clear (but small) gap.

The real gap is what Ovechkin did post-26 that is what will be hard to overcome (as that's Ovechkin's goalscoring peak).

As a player overall, definitely a totally different situation as Ovi's first 5 years are definitely on a different level though.

Did you assess how Ovechkin played 2887 minutes on the powerplay compared to 1438 for Matthews?

This small but clear gap you speak of doesn't actually exist, atleast not in favour of Ovechkin.

 

[authentic]

Goal scoring has never been easier and even ignoring that no. He’s not even the best goal scorer today.

Goal scoring has definitely been easier and Matthews has the most goals and goals per game in the league this season and since his career began...