Sure but Draisaitl is 2 years older so there is that.
I'd probably take drai but those 2 years and the going forward part it's hard not to take AM and then surround him with a team that works.
The failure of the TML's is on Auaton Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly.
You can fault management, ownership, depth guys, but its this group that has been here the longest, this group that is paid very highly to try and deliver and this group that fails repetedly.
There is no surroundung these guys with a team that works.
This is a team that has been tinkered half a dozen times already in 8 years
The core chokes, the stars underproduce, that wont change by changing a 2nd or 3rd liner.
Surrounding Matthews with a better team to win means giving him a Makar and Mackinnon or Kucherov & Hedman so he can go and drop to be the 3rd best player on the team (rantanen and point level) and try to win a cup
Matthews is a current generation/day Stamkos at the moment. Leafs havent got a kucherov, Hedman, Vas and, Point to allow him to become a supporting player on a deep cup winner where the other core guys take pressure and allow him to underproduce and still win.
We cant afford to with how much he makes, and how he us supposed to be our franchise guy ala Crosby, Mcdavid, Mak, Kuch, OV etc
Matthews needs to step up and deliver. Needs to find a way to mantain his regular season goal scoring and play come playoffs. He does that consistently, and he can be said to be better than Draisaitl going forward.