Barkov vs Eichel vs Matthews vs Draisaitl

[CantHaveTkachev]

Matthews played with a combination of Marleau/Johnsson and Kapanen all season.... not sure if you are being sarcastic.

yeah, he never played with Marner and Tavares

sure he didn't

 

[Cuphead]

Man, if these guys are all tiers above a 50 goal, 55 assist scorer, they must be putting up 150 points a season.

Oh? You have a kid who can't stay healthy for a season and has never cracked 80 points?
A player who finally hit over PPG in his 4th season in the NHL?

Barkov is a solid two way player, he's a tier above - not going to argue this one.

what season did Draisaitl hit PPG?

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

yeah, he never played with Marner and Tavares

sure he didn't

Lmao, your comparing a guy who played most of his season with McDavid, to a guy who played on the power play with Marner and Tavares. The power play split time with the second unit because of our Know it all coach, and the leafs had the least power play time in the league. I’m not sure what point you are trying to prove. Eichel played most of the season with Skinner, Barkov with Hoffman/Huberdeau/Dadanov

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Lmao, your comparing a guy who played most of his season with McDavid, to a guy who played on the power play with Marner and Tavares. The power play split time with the second unit because of our Know it all coach, and the leafs had the least power play time in the league. I’m not sure what point you are trying to prove. Eichel played most of the season with Skinner, Barkov with Hoffman/Huberdeau/Dadanov

who saying Draisaitl didn't play with good players?
my point is ...it isn't like the rest of these players played with scrubs

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Kapanen is worth a first and is also a bottom six scrub from what I’ve gathered from Leafs fans.

 

[McFlyingV]

Lmao, your comparing a guy who played most of his season with McDavid, to a guy who played on the power play with Marner and Tavares. The power play split time with the second unit because of our Know it all coach, and the leafs had the least power play time in the league. I’m not sure what point you are trying to prove. Eichel played most of the season with Skinner, Barkov with Hoffman/Huberdeau/Dadanov

It's always crazy to me that people only point to forwards and not defence who have a huge impact on team offence. Matthews played with a 70 point Rielly and Gardiner who has been a 40-50 point D for a few years now. The best that Draisaitl (and McDavid) had to play with was Nurse who will probably not repeat his 40 point season.

 

[Ninety7]

I’ll take actual results over fairytales.

Barkov/Drai
Matthews
Eichel

 

[tstracuzza]

I’ll take actual results over fairytales.

Barkov/Drai
Matthews
Eichel

100% agree

Too many people with crystal balls in here

For me it’s

Barkov/Drai
Eichel/AM

 

[Anichels]

If I had to pick one of these players to play in the playoffs vs Bergeron line, it would be Barkov easily.

After that I'm not sure.

Matthews/Draisaitl can be game breakers, but I would be nervous relying on them for defense.

Don't watch enough Eichel to rank him.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

I’m glad you broke that to me.

Meh, being a top five center in the NHL isn’t exactly easy with mcdavid and Crosby and all, I think he’s as talented as one even if he isn’t a consensus top five and once buffalo gets better (if it happens) he gets more support continues to grow and gets more exposure (playoffs, seen by more people) I’m sure he will be soon enough.

No one watches the Panthers and Barkov is leading this poll so I doubt more exposure to Eichel will change anything.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

It's always crazy to me that people only point to forwards and not defence who have a huge impact on team offence. Matthews played with a 70 point Rielly and Gardiner who has been a 40-50 point D for a few years now. The best that Draisaitl (and McDavid) had to play with was Nurse who will probably not repeat his 40 point season.

I don't have the numbers right now but from what I saw Rielly spent far and away most of his time lined up with the Tavares line as opposed to any other line on the leafs (aside from playoffs). The only place where Matthews played consistently with Rielly was on the PP.

 

[pcruz]

If Eichel really made everyone he plays with better-like Barkov does- his line mates would have easily scored over 65 pts by now.

Wasn’t Skinner “skinning” the league before going down?

Honestly, the guy can do no right.
A team full of rookies and scrubs, clearly building from within to what looks like a really bright future, and yet he has been superb for 3 seasons now.

How the hell is that all hype?

Matthews has basically played with either rookies or 2nd year players his entire NHL career outside of a stint with 40 year old Marleau.

All he’s done is hit 30+ goals every year, 40 once, 40+ adjusted his other 2 seasons, over a point per game with a new set of rookies, led a dead last placed team to 3 consecutive 100 point seasons and playoffs in his entry level years.

What else can be asked of him at this point?

Maybe he can play in net and make a save or two in the crucial elimination games, or get behind the bench and pencil himself in for more than 18 minutes a night during the season or in elimination games.


Matthews
Eichel
Barkov
Draisaitl


I’m biased towards the Arizona kid over the damned Boston kid....I still loathe Boston too much to take him first!

 

[koyvoo]

Barkov

Draisaitl
Matthews/Eichel

 

[pcruz]

In his rookie season he got 69 points when he played all 82 games. So you are right about that.

At least this season he got 73 points in 68 games, so no one can claim he's not a 70 point player anymore.

He meant 70 goals

 

[pcruz]

If I had to pick one of these players to play in the playoffs vs Bergeron line, it would be Barkov easily.

After that I'm not sure.

Matthews/Draisaitl can be game breakers, but I would be nervous relying on them for defense.

Don't watch enough Eichel to rank him.

Funny, because in the playoffs this year, the game when Matthews played against Bergeron, he absolutely dominated.

Shame that he was forced to play with a lesser version of Sergei Berezin and a career 3rdliner.

Also, this past season, it wasn’t every single minute, but just about, if Matthews was on the ice, Marner and Tavares were not, unless it was about :45-1:05 of power play time per pp opportunity.

Maybe he could have been given some shifts away from “shoot at all costs” Kapanen who takes wrist shots from anywhere and everywhere regardless of his surroundings. Another player can be wide open, unmarked, open net, back door tap-in, and Kapanen would take the wrist shot from the blue line right into the chest or miss the net entirely.

Anyone who believes he was either the key piece in the Kessel deal or that he has any real tangible value is delusional.

He has the speed of the greatest skaters, kills penalties effectively for that reason alone (fear inducing speed), but he has hands of granite and vision the width of a carbon nanotube.

Still scored 20 goals.
As did Andreas Johnsson.

Anyone heard of him prior to this year? Didn’t think so.

I hear that MacDavid guy isn’t bad and helps generate offence for his star line mate. Too bad that line mate is suppposed to lead his own line.

How has he looked when tasked with giving Edmonton a solid 1-2-3 punch down the middle?

Useless!

 

[ijif]

As of now, I'd go with
1. A. Matthews
2. A. Barkov
3. L.Draisitl
4. J. Eichel

This list could be completely reversed in 5 years, though. I think many posters are not looking at this question objectively due to team affiliation.

 

[McFlyingV]

I don't have the numbers right now but from what I saw Rielly spent far and away most of his time lined up with the Tavares line as opposed to any other line on the leafs (aside from playoffs). The only place where Matthews played consistently with Rielly was on the PP.

Matthews played 436:39 with, 583:28 without Rielly at even strength. So just over 40% of the time Rielly was on the ice when he was without even looking at PP.

 

[Anichels]

Funny, because in the playoffs this year, the game when Matthews played against Bergeron, he absolutely dominated.

Shame that he was forced to play with a lesser version of Sergei Berezin and a career 3rdliner.

Also, this past season, it wasn’t every single minute, but just about, if Matthews was on the ice, Marner and Tavares were not, unless it was about :45-1:05 of power play time per pp opportunity.

Maybe he could have been given some shifts away from “shoot at all costs” Kapanen who takes wrist shots from anywhere and everywhere regardless of his surroundings. Another player can be wide open, unmarked, open net, back door tap-in, and Kapanen would take the wrist shot from the blue line right into the chest or miss the net entirely.

Anyone who believes he was either the key piece in the Kessel deal or that he has any real tangible value is delusional.

He has the speed of the greatest skaters, kills penalties effectively for that reason alone (fear inducing speed), but he has hands of granite and vision the width of a carbon nanotube.

Still scored 20 goals.
As did Andreas Johnsson.

Anyone heard of him prior to this year? Didn’t think so.

I hear that MacDavid guy isn’t bad and helps generate offence for his star line mate. Too bad that line mate is suppposed to lead his own line.

How has he looked when tasked with giving Edmonton a solid 1-2-3 punch down the middle?

Useless!

So... the Toronto coaching staff kept Matthews away from Bergeron? Kind of proves my point doesn't it?

I don't understand 95% of your post... sounds like you're making excuses for Matthews' lack of productivity while downplaying Draisaitl's.
You're right that Draisaitl's point total was inflated by McDavid. Give him Matthew's line mates and he probably gets a similar point total.
I said he was a game breaker, what more do you want?

So yeah,

Barkov
Matthews/Draisaitl
Eichel?

 

[pcruz]

So... the Toronto coaching staff kept Matthews away from Bergeron? Kind of proves my point doesn't it?

I don't understand 95% of your post... sounds like you're making excuses for Matthews' lack of productivity while downplaying Draisaitl's.
You're right that Draisaitl's point total was inflated by McDavid. Give him Matthew's line mates and he probably gets a similar point total.
I said he was a game breaker, what more do you want?

So yeah,

Barkov
Matthews/Draisaitl
Eichel?

Cassidy did the same in the 4 home games though. He tried to neutralize Marner and Tavares as they are 2 superstars instead of the one on the Matthews line, yet when Auston played Bergeron head to head, he still scored.

Boston got very little out of that line against Toronto when not on the power play the whole series.

Toronto also got almost nothing out of Tavares and Marner the whole series, power play or not.

 

[sparxx87]

Weird to include a winger when comparing elite young centremen.

I’m not a big Eichel fan but he’s being pretty underrated here. He might be the most talented in the group.

 

[koyvoo]

I would take Leon Draisaitl. Not close I the slightest.

 

[Torlev]

Matthews
BArkov
Draisaitl
Eichel a distant 4th right now for obvious reasons.

 

[Kerberos]

this is the proper list

Oops.


Leon Draisaitl
Sasha Barkov
Auston Matthews
Jack Eichel

 

[Honest M]

Draisaitl

Matthews
Barkov

Jack Eichel

 

[Plural]

Originally I voted Matthews. But I have to go with Drai now. I think Barkov and Matthews are close, probably a wash. But even with McDavid I think Drai's offensive output is just simply too much.

Drai
Barky
Matthews
Eichel

Would be my current list.