Barzal Or Matthews

[Phil68]

Being an Elite goal scorer you need to be just as good of a passer to be tops in the NHL no matter what position you play.. Ovi great goal scorer, but the times he wont the Art Ross he had to rack up the assist. Unil Backstrom came where that was his role to make plays. But McDavid, Crosby, Malkin, Kucherov, all these guys have been 40 to 50 goal scorers and had to playmake. And the issue with Matthews he cannot, so far playmake

 

[wingnutks]

Mathews. Last year I would have said Barzal with it being close. With what I have seen from Barzal so far this year, its Mathews. Barzal needs to step it up.

 

[Peasy]

Take the center that will put up 40 goals and a PPG

 

[karnige]

lmfao holy ****. yes. Auston Matthews has the best 5on5 goal rate since he entered the league by a good margin over McDavid, and by a god damn mile over everyone else, but sure, Pettersson, Barzal, whoever ya got, whatever. Anyone on a hot streak might be better than Matthews. Pens fans were probably justifiably angry when "is Toews/Doughty/Kopitar/whoever better than Crosby??" threads happened, but knowing that Connor McDavid is a million miles ahead of everyone, it's hilarious to me that everyone hot streak of the week makes everyone rush to compare them to the Leafs' best player just because nobody can deal with the Leafs being good. I mean, hey, it's been 15 years, so half this site can hardly remember the Leafs ever being good, but come on, if you're gonna rush to do hot takes, go the extra mile and compare to McDavid/Sid instead of making clear your homer love of your favorite player STILL doesn't outweigh how much you hate the Leafs.

and your homer love of the leafs is quite telling also

 

[McShogun99]

Barzal hit 85 points as a rookie. Matthews still hasn’t hit 70 and is easily injured. It’s a lot closer then people will admit. Matthews is the far better goal scorer but Barzal is arguably the better overall player.

 

[34]

Has an AHL player outscored Matthews as a rookie and topped his career high as a 1st year?

Didn't think so, stop playing victim.

Yes every player scores 40 goals as a 19 yo rookie. That is the norm.

No victim here.

 

[vanarchy]

lmfao holy ****. yes. Auston Matthews has the best 5on5 goal rate since he entered the league by a good margin over McDavid, and by a god damn mile over everyone else, but sure, Pettersson, Barzal, whoever ya got, whatever. Anyone on a hot streak might be better than Matthews. Pens fans were probably justifiably angry when "is Toews/Doughty/Kopitar/whoever better than Crosby??" threads happened, but knowing that Connor McDavid is a million miles ahead of everyone, it's hilarious to me that everyone hot streak of the week makes everyone rush to compare them to the Leafs' best player just because nobody can deal with the Leafs being good. I mean, hey, it's been 15 years, so half this site can hardly remember the Leafs ever being good, but come on, if you're gonna rush to do hot takes, go the extra mile and compare to McDavid/Sid instead of making clear your homer love of your favorite player STILL doesn't outweigh how much you hate the Leafs.

Dude, calm down.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

Barzal is still elite at pushing the puck up the ice. Right now its not turning into offence like it was last year.

He has the worst plus minus on the Islanders. He is 41% in the dot. He has 5 even strength points and is pacing towards 7 goals. Most concerning is he has 15 shots in 12 games.

He is an elite talent who almost assuredly will play much better than this go forward. Regardless, any suggestion he is in the same tier as Matthews right now is laughable.

Babcock would move Barzal to wing.

 

[Canadian Finn]

Barzal is way more elite.

Like super more elite.

(unless Barzal was in Toronto, and Matthews wasn't - then it would be the other way around).

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Barzal hit 85 points as a rookie. Matthews still hasn’t hit 70 and is easily injured. It’s a lot closer then people will admit. Matthews is the far better goal scorer but Barzal is arguably the better overall player.

You know there's a whole other side of the ice to look at, it's not just about points.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Barzal Is Great and everything but I’ve yet to really be overly impressed by him this year. Sort of like Laine outside the one or two gms. There are about a dozen other guys who I’ve been impressed with over 7-8 different game s each this season, these two are also very different players and I find them hard to compare them. The injuries against Matthews shouldn’t be a huge arguing point unless it was concussions because there’s nothing overly significant to suggest he’s always going to get injured but if it keeps up then it will be more of a factor.

 

[SI90]

Barzal hit 85 points as a rookie. Matthews still hasn’t hit 70 and is easily injured. It’s a lot closer then people will admit. Matthews is the far better goal scorer but Barzal is arguably the better overall player.

To be fair Matthews scored 40 as a rookie.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Id still like to read some instances of what makes Matthews laughably or significantly better than Barzal. Alot of people are saying that but not saying why and acting like it's a no brainer.

I can understand why some people slightly give an edge to one or the other, but its just strange for me seeing people act like its a landslide win for Matthews.

 

[Frosty415]

85 points > 60 point injury prone scrub

 

[TheMule93]

Matthews pretty easily

 

[Axel574]

Tavares had higher S% and oiSH% while having significantly worse possession stats, so I'm confused where your "more sustainable" argument comes from.

What is oiSH%? I honestly don't know and would like an explanation. Thanks.

 

[Canadian Finn]

millennial math.

as useful as +/-

 

[LordNeverLose]

What is oiSH%? I honestly don't know and would like an explanation. Thanks.

on ice shot%

 

[Axel574]

I'd like to see Barzal show a little more ability to score. Hopefully its just a slow start this season ... If Barzal can score 20/25 goal a year than I'd take him over Matthews otherwise I'm not so sure.

Signed,
Islander Fan

 

[Axel574]

on ice shot%

Okay . Thanks. Is it the same thing as plain old shooting percentage?

 

[Taluss]

Matthews but Barzal has really impressed me. I think he is closer to Matthews than most may think

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Matthews of course....

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Okay . Thanks. Is it the same thing as plain old shooting percentage?

No. It's the total of every player on the ice for a given team as opposed to just one

 

[authentic]

Being an Elite goal scorer you need to be just as good of a passer to be tops in the NHL no matter what position you play.. Ovi great goal scorer, but the times he wont the Art Ross he had to rack up the assist. Unil Backstrom came where that was his role to make plays. But McDavid, Crosby, Malkin, Kucherov, all these guys have been 40 to 50 goal scorers and had to playmake. And the issue with Matthews he cannot, so far playmake

Ovechkin didn't win the Art Ross or even lead the NHL in goals until Backstrom came actually.

 

[authentic]

Barzal is still elite at pushing the puck up the ice. Right now its not turning into offence like it was last year.

He has the worst plus minus on the Islanders. He is 41% in the dot. He has 5 even strength points and is pacing towards 7 goals. Most concerning is he has 15 shots in 12 games.

He is an elite talent who almost assuredly will play much better than this go forward. Regardless, any suggestion he is in the same tier as Matthews right now is laughable.

Babcock would move Barzal to wing.

People thought he would be the same player being the #1 focus of other teams. He likely won't be right away, regression was expected. Matthews still gets keyed in on most and has worse linemates than Tavares and has the same amount of points in 3 less games.

Matthews>Tavares>Barzal and that's no insult to him, he's an exciting young player and should be elite for many years.

 

[Axel574]

No. It's the total of every player on the ice for a given team as opposed to just one

Thanks... So if I have a 40oish% it means I'm taking 40% of my teams shots. Do I have that right?