Why's everyone forgetting that MacKinnon was hot ass garbage during his first FOUR seasons in the league, while Matthews was a PPG player his 2nd season lmao. "Matthews can only dream of reaching at this point"
Yes MacKinnon has been great for two seasons, but let's not pretend he's on a completely different tier unattainable by Matthews
All due respect, but Matthews scored 63 points in 62 games. He was a PPG player who missed
20 games, and was only 1 point over a PPG pace at that point. Calling him a PPG player during that season would be just as accurate(and misleading) as saying he wasn't a 70-point player in his second season.
Both might be accurate, but neither is really true.
Right now, I absolutely think it's fair to say that MacKinnon is on a different tier. Not an unattainable one, but development isn't linear and a faster start to a career is no guarantee a player will be better. Kucherov didn't start as well as Matthews either, and he currently has 122 points in 78 games. Are you going to try to tell people that Matthews is going to be better because he had a better start to his career? Good luck with that.
I'd pick MacKinnon over Matthews simply because he has a
much better contract, while also being better. It would be one thing if Matthews had a full 8 years at his salary, but we're talking 5 years here. MacKinnon is signed for one year less than Matthews right now, but for significantly less money, and he's also out-produced Matthews both in terms of pace
and actual points(by a lot). That's kind of a no-brainer. The better player, with a small age difference, for a lot less money, and only a year difference in their contracts? That's an easy choice.
Dahlin is another matter, and a much tougher choice. It's tough to compare a forward's rookie season to a defenseman's, and both players had excellent rookie seasons. Matthews is more proven, and currently better, but that contract really doesn't help his case any. Also, an inability to stay healthy in 2 of 3 seasons hurts his case a bit too.