Post-Lockout Forward Tournament: Tier 1, Round 1: Auston Matthews Versus Leon Draisaitl

[GlitchMarner]

Since the players involved are at different stages of their careers, the best way to vote is probably by answering this question: If I was a General Manager and I could draft one player for my team (having the knowledge that I have about each player at this point in time), which player would I choose?

Some are more accomplished than others and some have been more injury-prone than others, but under different circumstances, how different could things have been?


Tier 1, Round 1:

Connor McDavid
Connor Bedard

Nathan MacKinnon
Nikita Kucherov

Auston Matthews
Leon Draisaitl

Elias Pettersson
Jack Hughes

Jack Eichel
Aleksander Barkov

Kirril Kaprizov
Mikko Rantanen

David Pastrnak
Artemi Panarin

Mitch Marner
Brayden Point

Click to read more...

 

[LivingRentFree]

This should be a much bigger blowout than it’s going to be

 

[Felidae]

This should be a much bigger blowout than it’s going to be

Lol what, this shouldn't be a blowout at all

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I think Matthews but any team would be lucky to draft either. Close.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

70 goal guy

 

[Despote]

Playoffs are the only argument for Drak

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

This should be a much bigger blowout than it’s going to be

Agreed, not sure how anyone could pick matthews over drai

 

[LivingRentFree]

Agreed, not sure how anyone could pick matthews over drai

Drai is better at essentially nothing.

Slower
Not as good along the boards
Much worse defensively
Not as good off a scorer
PP Merchant

I guess he’s a better powerplay passer?

 

[Bouboumaster]

It's like the first year where Nostril is above Draisatl, and somehow he beats him? WTF

 

[Golden_Jet]

Draisitl 345 goals, 839 points
Matthews 368 goals 649 points

Then playoffs obviously Draisitl ahead.

 

[filinski77]

Some stats (including this season currently)

Top-10 goal finishes:
Matthews = 1/1/1/2/3
Draisaitl = 2/2/4/4/4

Top-10 point finishes:
Matthews = 5/6/6/9
Draisaitl = 1/2/2/4/4/7/8

Top-10 Hart finishes:
Matthews = 1/2/10
Draisaitl = 1/7/8/9
(Matthews likely adds a 4th place Hart finish this year)

 

[AvroArrow]

Draisitl 345 goals, 839 points - 717 games played
Matthews 368 goals 649 points - 560 games played

Then playoffs obviously Draisitl ahead.

Why leave out how many games played ? lol

 

[Duke74]

Drai is better at essentially nothing.

Slower
Not as good along the boards
Much worse defensively
Not as good off a scorer
PP Merchant

I guess he’s a better powerplay passer?

Draisaitl is better than Matthews at:

Overall offensive production (although it's close)
Playmaking/Passing/Assists
Faceoffs
Elevating weaker linemates (Matthews has one of Nylander/Marner while Draisaitl has crap)
Powerplay production
Playoff production (including goals)

Draisaitl is having a terrible year while Matthews is having a phenomenal one so the timing of this poll is exquisite. I expect Matthews to win in a rout due to recency bias.

 

[ijuka]

Drai is better at essentially nothing.

Slower
Not as good along the boards
Much worse defensively
Not as good off a scorer
PP Merchant

I guess he’s a better powerplay passer?

How about playmaking?

 

[Golden_Jet]

Drai is better at essentially nothing.

Slower
Not as good along the boards
Much worse defensively
Not as good off a scorer
PP Merchant

I guess he’s a better powerplay passer?

Actually Draisitl is faster,
Top speed 23.3 mph, 93 percentile
Bursts over 20 mph. 214 times for 95 percentile

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics - Skaters

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics for skaters including skating speed, skating distance, shot speed, shot location, and zone time.

edge.nhl.com

Matthews
Top speed 22.47 mph, 61 percentile
Bursts over 20 mph. 115 times for 76 percentile

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics - Skaters

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics for skaters including skating speed, skating distance, shot speed, shot location, and zone time.

edge.nhl.com

 

[Rob Brown]

Draisitl 345 goals, 839 points
Matthews 368 goals 649 points

Then playoffs obviously Draisitl ahead.

I love that you deliberately left out games played just to make the player that has played 157 more games (while also being two years older and entering the league later after being drafted) look significantly better in terms of total points. Completely disingenuous.

Draisaitl - 1.18 PPG
Matthews - 1.16 PPG

Yes, Draisaitl has been better in the playoffs, but also plays with the best player in the world, which does inflate numbers to a certain extent.

 

[Mrb1p]

Drai easy.

Edit: Lmao how is Matthews wining this. In a bad year, Matthews is outproducing Drai by 3 points. In a bad year, Drai outproduced Matthews by 30. Hilarious.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Drai is better at essentially nothing.

Slower
Not as good along the boards
Much worse defensively
Not as good off a scorer
PP Merchant

I guess he’s a better powerplay passer?

Drai is much faster than Matthews.

Drai is better along the boards.

Matthews is better defensively.

Its a wash offensively. Matthews is the better goal scorer, Drai is a better multifaceted threat (elite scoring and passing).

Drai is better on the power play.

Drai is also a MUCH better big game player.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Some stats (including this season currently)

Top-10 goal finishes:
Matthews = 1/1/1/2/3
Draisaitl = 2/2/4/4/4

Top-10 point finishes:
Matthews = 5/6/6/9
Draisaitl = 1/2/2/4/4/7/8

Top-10 Hart finishes:
Matthews = 1/2/10
Draisaitl = 1/7/8/9
(Matthews likely adds a 4th place Hart finish this year)

Top 10 assist finishes:

Matthews = _
Drai = 1/2/3/8/9

 

[LeafsNation149]

Draisitl 345 goals, 839 points
Matthews 368 goals 649 points

Then playoffs obviously Draisitl ahead.

1 cheats for the offence and is considered terrible defensively by his own fanbase. The other is competing for the Selke (likely top 5). But yeah lets look at career points and not include total games!

 

[Aashir Mallik]

It's like the first year where Nostril is above Draisatl, and somehow he beats him? WTF

Not to nitpick, but this is the second year now. Matthews’s hart year he was also a class above him. Draisaitl has also had years where he’s been a class above him.

Tbh though I voted Draisaitl, but this could be either. Draisaitl is an insanely deadly two pronged threat with his playmaking and passing. Matthews’s goal scoring is insane too. Draisaitl is a much better pp player, and Matthews is a much better defensive player. Draisaitl and Matthews both have 1 year where they either 1B or 1A (19-20 draisaitl and 21-22 Matthews).

the tiebreaker for me is the playoffs, which really push draisaitl over the edge for me. Dudes been an animal almost every single time he’s touched the ice.

 

[Rob Brown]

Drai easy.

Edit: Lmao how is Matthews wining this. In a bad year, Matthews is outproducing Drai by 3 points. In a bad year, Drai outproduced Matthews by 30. Hilarious.

It's almost like you're posting on a message board where some people are bound to have a different opinion than you!

 

[Mrb1p]

It's almost like you're posting on a message board where some people are bound to have a different opinion than you!

Its almost like Im posting on a board dominated by Leafs fans *

 

[Rob Brown]

Its almost like Im posting on a board dominated by Leafs fans *

Ah yes, the thousands of posts on other teams sections are all Leafs fans.

 

[Castle8130]

Really close one. Went with Draisaitl because of his playoff performances (he has 31 goals in 49 games) and he produces at a higher clip in the regular season. Either would be nice