Rookie Ovechkin or Prime Matthews

[Regal]

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?

Scoring went down from 05-06 to 07-08 and he was on pace for 124 points in 09-10 when his team was a wagon.

 

[Isaac Nootin]

Scoring went down from 05-06 to 07-08 and he was on pace for 124 points in 09-10 when his team was a wagon.

And Matthews was on pace for 120 in 21/22 which I assume was probably close to 05/06 levels of scoring (no idea), minus the insane amount of PP opportunities/time.

I just don't see any argument for rookie Ovechkin over Prime Matthews, especially when you consider the all around game. You have a Hart/Lindsay/Rocket award type player while being Top 3 in Selke voting.

 

[sr edler]

I don't even know what prime Matthews is supposed to mean, he always seems the same to me, no matter age or other circumstances. Rookie Ovechkin was a rare type of player with way more edge and upside to his game.

 

[Foppberg]

lol is this a joke? Ovi.

 

[mackinnon29]

Ovie for sure, both guys can score goals but the early years of Ovechkin also included a physical play that hasn’t been seen from a goal scorer since. First all time in goals shots and is fourth all time in hits. They don’t call the guy the Russian machine for nothing. And I’m top of that never gets hurt. This year is the longest I believe he’s been hurt, broke his leg and came back ahead of schedule. Very good chance he’d be up there with Draisaitl this year for the rocket if he never got hurt.

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