Laine could be the top scorer in WHC and the Leafs would still draft Matthews and deservedly so. Remember Laine is playing with a world class centerman in Barkov and Joikenen is no slouch. Matthews doesn't have the likes of a Patrick Kane on his wing.
If teams like Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary held the first pick they would have to look long and hard at Laine because they do have some strength down the middle. Teams like Toronto, Columbus & Vancouver would be singularly focussed on Matthews.
I understand that Laine is in an impossible situation to be number one in the draft, if the deciding people always try to find in this same way an explanation to put down the wonderful achievements Laine has done this season. He outscored Matthews in WJC and was the key clutch guy for a total underdog gold medal winning team.
People who like to always defend Matthews like to always point out: "Oh, but Laine had so much better linemates, and poor Matthews had to play with just scrubs. " Well, boohoo. Laine had to play with scrubs almost his whole season in FEL, and still he achieved great numbers in regular season. Especially taken his age into account. And for crying out loud, Laine's WJC linemates were underagers like himself. In fact if you look at the matureness and the physical readiness, Matthews played with superior linemates at the WJC in those aspects. It was just that Laine, Aho and Pulju are so talented, that they could still outscore older and more mature opponents. And that's what those three are capable to do against men too. And in the toughest games also. (that we saw already in the FEL playoffs, while Matthews was having a well deserved rest)
This is still to be seen from Matthews. If he will not be able to do it even in this tournament, and Laine will, it should be a sure sign of Laine surpassing Matthews as a player. I mean there will not be any recent evidence of Matthews outplaying Laine, as all the evidence would point out that Laine has been better than him.
Of course the WHC tournament is still very young, and anything can still happen. It will definitely be interesting to see how Matthews does against Belarus. If USA skates like they skated against Finland in the practice match right before the tournament, they might after all be able to wipe the floor with Belarus, and that would probably mean some nice points for Matthews. Still, Belarus can often be a surprisingly tough team to play against, especially if you don't manage to play your A-game against them.
USA has a young and talented team, and to say that Matthews is playing there with scrubs is not even really the truth. Yesterday their biggest weakness was their goalie. With better goaltending in the rest of the tournament they will be still a force to reckon. But if Matthews is really so much head above Laine, or even Laine's class, he should be able to get a clearly bigger role in team USA than he has had so far. But ok, lets watch the tournament to the end. Then we will have more basis to comment on how they compare to each others when playing against top level men.