Matthews seems to be lost in Laine's shadow among these boards for some reason. Everyone talks about how Liiga > NLA. What they refuse to talk about is how Matthews went over to NLA, and in his first season was the best player on the best team in the league, and scored the most goals and had the best PPG on his team by far. He then went into the playoffs with the best team in the league, and once again had the most points before his team was eliminated. As a first year player, playing a different country on a different size ice surface, he finished 2nd in MVP voting after 32 year old, former 8th overall NHL player Pierre-Marc Bouchard. He was also the best player on his team at the WJC, Swiss Cup (tied for most points in the tournament), and WC. No matter where Matthews went, he was always the best on his team, Laine didn't have those same responsibilities and more often than not, he wasn't the best player on his team.
IMO, Matthews is a tier above Laine.