Auston Matthews Ranked 36th in Ice Time for Centres

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to put Auston Matthews on the ice more often.

Auston Matthews is the best player on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and one of the best players in the NHL. I think the Leafs would be a better team if they played him more.

The problem is that Matthews is averaging just 18:26 per game overall. That is 36th in the NHL (among centres) and almost four minutes less than the NHL leader (Barkov).

Matthews is 8th in 5v5 ice-time for centres (which is good, but why not make him #1?), he was 37th last year. He is up almost a minute per game from last year, but still plays a minute less than the league’s leaders.

So there is a whole lot more ice time the Leafs could give him. On the power-play, Matthews bizarrely averages the sixth most ice time on the team, and six seconds per game less than Tyler Bozak. I have no stats to back it up, but it seems like Matthews is always coming out on the second power-play unit, and this just seems insane to me.

Matthew doesn’t play the penalty kill, and I think if he killed penalties he would a) be the Leafs best penalty killer b) score a lot more short-handed points that the team is otherwise never getting and c) he wouldn’t sit out for extended periods of time and he’d be more ‘in the game’ at all times. I think there’s a good argument for making your best players kill penalties.

More or Less

Perhaps Matthews plays less than other star players because the team wants to save him for the playoffs. Maybe it’s because of an overcrowded roster, or at the recommendation of sports scientists – who knows?

There could be very good reasons why Auston Matthews doesn’t play the penalty kill, doesn’t skate as much as other top centres, or gets the same amount of power play time as Tyler Bozak. I don’t now what they are, so how could I possibly say they aren’t relevant?

How can I possibly know if Auston Matthews ascension to being a top player isn’t directly linked to is slightly lower ice time in relation to other centres of his quality? Maybe It’s what makes him good.

But all the other all-time great NHL superstars – Gretzky, Lemieux, Lindros, McDavid – have been able to hand an extra little bit of ice time without seeming to have any adverse affects.

More from Editor In Leaf

I am skeptical that a professional athlete at or near his physical prime can’t handle a couple extra shifts every game. I don’t think you can accumulate energy or sleep or rest. If you were really tired in February, then got well rested in March, I don’t know that your June would have been any better if you had rested more in February.

In the NHL it is very difficult to get an edge. All teams in a salary cap league essentially have one really good line, and for the vast majority of the teams they cancel each other out. But the Leafs have a player who is better than basically all of the other players.

Play Matthews More.

Matthews has the ability to be better than almost every opponent’s best player, and that’s a huge edge most teams never get. It seems to make sense to play him more. The only way to know for sure is to crank up his ice time and see if he does better or worse.

Next: Leafs Season Review So Far

I can’t equivalently say giving him more ice time will make the Leafs better, but considering there is no real history of evidence to suggest you should play your best player less, at least that I am aware of, I think the Leafs should give convention a try and just play the crap out of their best player.

All stats from Naturalstattrick.com

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