Tim Stutzle (OTT) vs Auston Matthews (TOR) Who is better defensively?

[Dion TheFluff]

Scoring is up 5.6% from 2018-19 to 2022-23, and Stutzle's D+3 ppg was 7.5% higher than Matthews'.

Beyond that, Stutzle led his team in scoring by 7 points (his 82 game pace was 12 points clear of 2nd), while Matthews was 3rd on the Leafs and tied 2nd with Tavares in PPG. I do think Babcock had a negative impact on Matthews ability to put up numbers, but he was also on a better team with more talent. A lot of these things net out IMO.

At the worst, Matthews and Stutzle were on par with eachother in their D+3 years, but if an edge goes to anyone it's Stutzle IMO.

did he actually play with the better talent though?

Here are the most common linemates at even strength for both players in their d+3 seasons.

I don't know about you but I would easily take B. Tkachuk, Giroux and Batherson over Kapanen, Marleau, and Johnsson.

 

[Steve]

That one probably is Stutzle

Assuming you are excluding the womb broom bc it’s AM if we take that into account.

 

[SelltheTeamFrancesco]

Is this a joke? I would love to know what the people voting Stutztle are watching because it ain't hockey.

 

[NyQuil]

Is this a joke? I would love to know what the people voting Stutztle are watching because it ain't hockey.

The 9 people?

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

did he actually play with the better talent though?

Here are the most common linemates at even strength for both players in their d+3 seasons.

I don't know about you but I would easily take B. Tkachuk, Giroux and Batherson over Kapanen, Marleau, and Johnsson.

He was on a team with better talent, he just didn't always play with them, which is why I phrased it the way I did. There are benefits to having Tavares/Marner on a separate line to draw attention away from Matthews. And he got them on the PP.

 

[KevinRedkey]

AM34 finally wins a poll ! Just had to exclude the contract!!

The only reason Matthews isn't getting more votes (for a bigger gap) in the points thread is because many known Leafs homers are literally avoiding the poll entirely, due to fear of being ridiculed for being wrong later on.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

He was on a team with better talent, he just didn't always play with them, which is why I phrased it the way I did. There are benefits to having Tavares/Marner on a separate line to draw attention away from Matthews. And he got them on the PP.

Quality of linemates typically has a way higher influence on overall production than quality of competition does, and yes but it's not like Stutzle was playing with scrubs either, and like I said previously, Stutzle getting an extra minute and a half on the PP is huge. Not hard to see that Stutzle was put in a position to be more productive given linemates and ice time distribution he had compared to Matthews.

 

[notbias]

Why not? He had a more productive d+3 season despite being 4 months younger and playing on a worse team. There's no reason Stutzle couldn't reach or even surpass Matthews, especially in the playoffs.

well, from D+4 onward for Matthews, here are his playoff stats.

So he needs to be a PPG+ player... but also, he just needs to worry about making the playoffs first.

 

[spiny norman]

Lopsided result.