this really hurts the "matthews woulda went 3rd had he been born 2 weeks earlier" crowd
until Eichel gets 35-40g, and is a PPG+ player while leading his team to the playoffs, he wont be on the same tier as Matthews. make all the excuses you want, but the kid is getting 20min and loads of PP time (on a PP that was very,very good) so the whole linemates thing doesnt stick.
It’s pretty funny how some fans are so obsessed with this ice time thing. It matters sure. But give me 18 mins with w Nylander then 20 a game with Pominville of today. Those are both guys best linemates to this point. Also With ice time almost no one if gifted anything. He’s earned it. Second why don’t all the players who get 20 minutes and PP time produce point per game? You want to know why? Becuse it’s hard to do.
Auston does it one time barely in an injury shortened season where-as eichel has been 3 pts and 4 pts off doing the same thing. You could argue 121 in his last 128 is more impressive then 63 in 62 since it’s over a longer period.
Give me 18 mins a game with a high scoring, winning leafs team with Nylander and whoever it will be this year Hyman marleau whoever over twenty mins with girgsensens/Rodrigues and Pominville.
He only had 3 power play goals last year and your talking about all this PP time without realizing 22 goals were scored at even strength and had 39 assists in just 67 games on a team that scored only 198 goals.
I can’t take anyone seriously who brags about Auston “leading his team” to the playoffs when they also added a top ten goalie (Eichels never had a rest goalie) Mitch Marner (who some of you hve called hilariously better then Eichel) shouldn’t he help? and lastly Nylander that year .....and for the record eichel also got his team from last to 22nd in his first year, (they dropped off the last two both of which he was injured for a quarter amongstnother reasons) I know 22nd is not like 16th like Auston did but he didn’t have those other guys. I also can’t take anyone seriously who says until he leads his team to the playoffs. Pretty sure mcdavid is the best player in the world and he didn’t make the playoffs last year. Teammates can bring you down this isn’t basketball, star forwards sit on the bench for two thirds of a hockey game.
So eichel is penalized for how poor his teammates play when he’s not on the ice which happens to be 2/3rds a game? See where that logic fails. Also anyone who quotes a TSN list in where Matthews is. Where is TSN located again. It’s like EA Sports in Vancouver every year they made the sedins still 92ish overall despite being well past their primes, it’s homer tendencies to the max.
Matthews has proven more and is better overall to this point but the fact Eichel is one of the fastest, most talented playmakers, with an elite skill set in this entire league can’t be ignored. Or the fact he’s had a better PPG then AM since he entered the league despite all those disadvantages. (Injuries, crap teammates, a bad coaching system and a brand new one with a rookie coach in his first year) etc. I don’t care how many more minutes he gets on a team that scored 198 goals. He still lead the team in scoring despite being out 20 percent of the year. It shows how bad his supporting cast really was. Eichel had to face all the leagues best opposition, checkers defenders because unlike Toronto buffalo couldn’t spread it around and none of it slowed him down. Eichels one of the few players that can create despite the fact.
To the few of you who don’t think eichel is going to continue improving, I feel bad I do. Your in for a big dissapojntment. He has every ability to out-produce Matthews, he did it in the 16-17 season 0.94 to 0.84 and now with the best supporting cast he’s ever had he can do it again.