Rookie Ovechkin or Prime Matthews

[Crow]

3 Harts and 3 Ted Lindsey’s, trumps those easily.

Even “Plays C”?

 

[RedHawkDown]

The C thing is also massively overrated. The only reason most of the best players are Cs is because kids who are really good young get shuffled into playing C. The best wingers have just as much of an impact on their teams.

 

[nbwingsfan]

At first though Matthews but when you consider Ovi had 52g/106pts playing with Zubrus and Clarke and outscored his teammates by like 50pts it makes it harder

I choose Ovi cause F the Leafs

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Ovechkin AINEC

 

[Machinehead]

I wanna say I'm surprised by the results, but the Leafs are such a meme that I'm really not.

Rookie Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points. That was also during the cartoon 2005-06 season where they actually enforced interference. Teams averaged 5.85 powerplays per game. He had 52 points on the powerplay.

Auston Matthews' best season was 69 goals (f***in nice) and 107 points, with only 29 points coming on the powerplay.

I value even strength scoring more, especially in a league with 12 minors per game versus a league with 6 minors per game. Anything that happened in 2005-06 has to be taken with a brick of salt. It had twice as many powerplays as a normal NHL.

And even putting that aside, Matthews still literally had more points and 17 more goals.

It's Ovechkin for prime, peak, and career, but the answer to this poll is Matthews.

 

[tabness]

Your overlooking the wrecking ball aspect of one of the players, not too mention OV’s 52 goals , and 106 points.

Definitely, Ovechkin has a physical dimension that makes the already soft Matthews look even softer but Matthews is also a far better defensive player than rookie Ovechkin

The people who never watched Ovechkin's rookie season here are obvious. Usually I don't agree with the nostalgia bump, but this isn't that close. 106 point Matthews was great, but 106 point rookie Ovechkin was running through people like Lindros and still scoring 52 goals. He was an absolute wrecking ball, completely dominant tilting the ice every night, and much more valuable to a team than a pure goal scorer who is kind of soft.

Lindros makes Ovechkin look like Matthews in terms of physicality though

 

[Sasha Orlov]

I wanna say I'm surprised by the results, but the Leafs are such a meme that I'm really not.

Rookie Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points. That was also during the cartoon 2005-06 season where they actually enforced interference. Teams averaged 5.85 powerplays per game. He had 52 points on the powerplay.

Auston Matthews' best season was 69 goals (f***in nice) and 107 points, with only 29 points coming on the powerplay.

I value even strength scoring more, especially in a league with 12 minors per game versus a league with 6 minors per game. Anything that happened in 2005-06 has to be taken with a brick of salt. It had twice as many powerplays as a normal NHL.

And even putting that aside, Matthews still literally had more points and 17 more goals.

It's Ovechkin for prime, peak, and career, but the answer to this poll is Matthews.

Matthews also had two teammates over PPG including Nylander who was 10th in scoring in the NHL

2nd to Ovechkin was Zubrus with 57 pts lmfao, Leafs had 5 players with more

 

[Turin]

Matthews pretty obviously. A defensively responsible C who scores more vs a winger who scores less and is bad defensively. Ovechkin from 2008-2010 is a different story.

 

[Machinehead]

Matthews also had two teammates over PPG including Nylander who was 10th in scoring in the NHL

2nd to Ovechkin was Zubrus with 57 pts lmfao, Leafs had 5 players with more

Yeah, that's a point in Ovechkin's favor but for me, not enough to overcome that he was on the powerplay twice as much as scored around the same.

 

[Regal]

I wanna say I'm surprised by the results, but the Leafs are such a meme that I'm really not.

Rookie Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points. That was also during the cartoon 2005-06 season where they actually enforced interference. Teams averaged 5.85 powerplays per game. He had 52 points on the powerplay.

Auston Matthews' best season was 69 goals (f***in nice) and 107 points, with only 29 points coming on the powerplay.

I value even strength scoring more, especially in a league with 12 minors per game versus a league with 6 minors per game. Anything that happened in 2005-06 has to be taken with a brick of salt. It had twice as many powerplays as a normal NHL.

And even putting that aside, Matthews still literally had more points and 17 more goals.

It's Ovechkin for prime, peak, and career, but the answer to this poll is Matthews.

PP percentage and ES scoring per 60 have both gone up since then and more PPs also means fewer ES minutes. It wasn’t really easier to score in 05-06 than 23-24

 

[authentic]

I wanna say I'm surprised by the results, but the Leafs are such a meme that I'm really not.

Rookie Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points. That was also during the cartoon 2005-06 season where they actually enforced interference. Teams averaged 5.85 powerplays per game. He had 52 points on the powerplay.

Auston Matthews' best season was 69 goals (f***in nice) and 107 points, with only 29 points coming on the powerplay.

I value even strength scoring more, especially in a league with 12 minors per game versus a league with 6 minors per game. Anything that happened in 2005-06 has to be taken with a brick of salt. It had twice as many powerplays as a normal NHL.

And even putting that aside, Matthews still literally had more points and 17 more goals.

It's Ovechkin for prime, peak, and career, but the answer to this poll is Matthews.

Well interestingly enough their entire careers have a massive disparity in powerplay time, that’s not exclusive to the 2005-06 season for Ovechkin… he has averaged over 5 minutes per game basically his entire career even into many of these recent seasons where overall powerplay time has plummeted. Matthews is the complete opposite here, rarely gets much above 3 and funny enough came 2nd in goals in his rookie season (Ovechkin was 3rd) with only 2:28 in powerplay time and just over 17 minutes total. Not to mention he does this all as a two-way center instead of cheating for offense at every turn.

HF is strangely deluded as to how good Matthews has actually been, rookie Ovechkin was certainly the more entertaining player though I will give him that.

 

[authentic]

PP percentage and ES scoring per 60 have both gone up since then and more PPs also means fewer ES minutes. It wasn’t really easier to score in 05-06 than 23-24

True, but still seeing a larger percentage of your ice time there on a relative basis makes scoring a little easier. Ovechkin constantly being 1st if not very close in powerplay time as opposed to 40th in the league helps no matter the era as it’s always easier to score on the powerplay.

 

[Mrb1p]

This isnt even close. Rookie Ovi would be the best player jn the world right now. Both he and Crosby are just on a different level.

 

[authentic]

To put into perspective how crazy it is that Ovechkin is winning this, Matthews had a 50 game stretch where he scored 1 fewer goal than Ovechkin did all season, with nearly half the powerplay time! That entirely erases any minute difference in overall league scoring.

 

[TheLegend27]

To put into perspective how crazy it is that Ovechkin is winning this, Matthews had a 50 game stretch where he scored 1 fewer goal than Ovechkin did all season, with nearly half the powerplay time! That entirely erases any minute difference in overall league scoring.

Teammate quality matters, Ovi with Marner, Knies, Nylander and Tavares puts up much better stats instead of being a one man army on those Caps. Matthews was getting fed shots left and right(deservingly considering his shot) while Ovi often had to carry the puck off the rush to make things happen. Ovi’s quality of chances was just lower.

 

[Offtheboard412]

This is Matthews, though I guess people may have different opinions on Matthews best season that may be affecting the results. Imo Matthews best year was 21/22, he was the better goal scorer between the two, was a better two way player, and although he missed time and "only" finished with 106 points, his points per game was right there with McDavid. If he plays the full 82 games there's a good chance he even takes the Ross that year. It's the one season of Matthews that I think actually matches up with 2007-2010 Ovechkin at his peak, and may have even been better than Ovechkin in 08/09 (imo it was, though I still have 07/08 and 09/10 OV above it).

I will say that I would love to see 05-10 Ovechkin in today's game. I think he might even manage to hit 70 goals/130+ points in one of those years. I don't even think that's really an outlandish projection considered he paced for 57g/122pts through 72 games in 09/10.

 

[CrashOut]

I went to look at Wash roster in 2006 to refresh my memory.

Holy fkn cow.

Its something...

 

[CrashOut]

I wanna say I'm surprised by the results, but the Leafs are such a meme that I'm really not.

Rookie Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points. That was also during the cartoon 2005-06 season where they actually enforced interference. Teams averaged 5.85 powerplays per game. He had 52 points on the powerplay.

Auston Matthews' best season was 69 goals (f***in nice) and 107 points, with only 29 points coming on the powerplay.

I value even strength scoring more, especially in a league with 12 minors per game versus a league with 6 minors per game. Anything that happened in 2005-06 has to be taken with a brick of salt. It had twice as many powerplays as a normal NHL.

And even putting that aside, Matthews still literally had more points and 17 more goals.

It's Ovechkin for prime, peak, and career, but the answer to this poll is Matthews.

I was coming here with same mentality you have. Then I looked at his roster. Its disgusting.

 

[Coffee]

3 Harts and 3 Ted Lindsey’s, trumps those easily.

Good thing we are excluding hardware and stats for this argument

 

[thadd]

Rookie Ovechkin was terrifying.

Ovechkin is still a great player, but young Ovechkin was a really heavy hitter.

 

[ant123]

I don’t even know whey there is a discussion. We know that in rookie Ovi there is still 20 years of good stable hockey on high level , and value to build successful franchise around him and unmatched entertainment value and future all time record

 

[Golden_Jet]

Good thing we are excluding hardware and stats for this argument

Follow the discussion, responded to, and you’ll see why.

 

[elmaco]

Raging bull Ovi or Glass man Austin, not a hard choice.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Lindros makes Ovechkin look like Matthews in terms of physicality though

Ahh the ever growing legend of Lindros keeps growing far beyond how good he ever was.

In 20 years, Eric Lindros is going to be remembered as a 7'10 monster who turns green when he's angry and fight entire teams while scoring 10 goals a game.

I'll always remember him as a guy who could dish it out but never take it back.

 

[Isaac Nootin]

Teammate quality matters, Ovi with Marner, Knies, Nylander and Tavares puts up much better stats instead of being a one man army on those Caps.

Yet Ovechkin has a career high of 112, and some of those Caps teams during his peak were absolute wagons.

So you would expect him to eclipse his peak totals in his rookie year because why exactly?