All I’m going to say is, an injured AM34 is still going to pace 40g per season. That is insane. But some on this board claim he is worthless and we should get rid of him. Even more insane.
I don’t think we should get rid of AM34, but he needs to bring a better and more consistent effort night in and night out. He’s not even close to the player who was hungry for the puck during COVID or even last season.
If he can’t shoot, he needs to be a distributor as a center and start passing the puck and creating chances for his linemates. To me that’s what makes him a tier below Crosby, McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Barkov, ect, those guys drive play and create for their lines & can distribute just as good as create they can create their own chances. As a center Matthews could be doing more in terms of that.