First of all I was replying to a comment of someone saying they don’t see an indication of Laine being a better goal scorer...
Secondly Laine is better in quality of shots agaisnt... So don’t act as if Matthews is a Two-Way god in this thread
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Thirdly, he did it a couple games ago(surpassed Matthews in PPG).
Fourthly, do you have any proof Laine has been playing sheltered minutes agaisnt lower competition? For instance from my viewings tonight he was up agaisnt Ovechkins line for a majority of his and Ovies night(this is anecdotal but I only noticed this because it was kind of a Laine vs Ovie game). There is no evidence that you can show me that proves this because it’s not true and is a follow up excuse that you want to pepper on to your weak arguments.
I choose the Gernerational Goal Scoring Winger over the Elite Goalscoring #1 Center(his Two-Way game is overrated).
I think a case can be made Laine is better, though I would agree with some that say they are pretty even right at this moment.
The Center - Winger argument is a non point to me when discussing better players. IE. I would not say Gretzky is better than Orr just because Center>D man or vice versa. This is simply a cop out.
What I look for is production, projection, ceiling and peak.
Laine already holds the edge on Matthews statistically, and is a year younger or more precisely 7 months the length of one season.
He got off to a mediocre start, but has now already passed Matthews career high in goals with 41, and is just 5 points back of Matthews 69 points with 13 games to play. Laine has also added a physical element to his game making him more impactful, and for those watching he is a very conscientious defensive player as the last couple of games he has back checked diligently coming back and breaking up odd man rushes. He is 5 v 5 threat as well as being one of the most impactful PP players in the NHL.
So at the very least at age 19, Laine is as good as Matthews, if not better if one factors in recent play and trajectory.
Both we can agree on will be great NHL'ers.
But for a player to player comparison. It is close now. In the future I suspect Laine will separate himself from Matthews and will be known as the better player.