The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best players in the world on their roster.
In fact, the Toronto Maple Leafs have several.
I could be talking about John Tavares, Morgan Rielly or William Nylander, but today when I talk about one of the best players in the world, I’ll be speaking about Auston Matthews.
I wasn’t sure what superlative to use in the title, if we’re being honest. Hall of Fame seemed fair, because what Matthews has done in the first 12 games of the season is nothing short of all-time greatness. (all stats for this article naturalstattrick.com).
And for some weird reason, I’ve heard more people complaining about his defense and his heart and his leadership than I’ve heard praise him for the insane start to the season he’s had.
You don’t buy a Ferrari and then complain that it sucks at towing. You don’t complain about the small back-seat or the trunk space.
Matthews doesn’t exist to play defense, though he has the puck so much that it’s basically irrelevant anyways. A player with 60% puck possession provides better defense than the best defensive player by not having to ever play it.
On to the stats. (Current prior to the star of last night’s game).
Matthews Incredible Start
Auston Matthews has a ridiculous nine goals in 12 games to start the season which is a 62 goal pace.
It has been 12 seasons since the NHL has seen a 60 goal scorer.
The incredible thing about Matthews nine goals, is that six of them are at 5v5, where he leads the league.
David Pastrnak actually leads the NHL with ten goals, but he’s shooting 32% which is impossible to sustain. I love Pastrnak, but he is not going to lead the NHL in goal scoring.
Matthews has one less goal, but he’s shooting 18% which is really high for most players, but just slightly over his career norm. Matthews is getting a little bit lucky, which anyone has to do to score 60 goals, but Pastrnak is getting unsustainably lucky.
Pastrnak’s PDO is 102, Matthews’ is 97.
In addition to being the best (if not yet the highest) goal scorer in the league, Auston Matthews also leads all forwards with a 59% CF percentage.
He has been on the ice for more shots than any forward in the league, and has the highest on-ice shot% among forwards.
The facts are impressive. Matthews is off to one of the hottest starts in the history of the NHL, but what makes it even crazier is this:
He has hardly any assists. His 2.3 points/60 is an elite rating, good for 30th in the league, but it’s buoyed only by his goal scoring. Matthew’s has just three assists.
He always has more goals than assists, but this ration is an anomaly based on the fact that his two most common linemates – Andreas Johnson and William Nylander – have just two and three goals respectively.
Once the puck starts going in for those guys – and it will – Matthews assists will start to come with much higher frequency.
For now he is on pace for 60 goals and 82 points, but while the goal total can be sustained, he’s going to start getting a lot more assists. 60 goals, 110 points and a Hart Trophy are not out of the question.
Some people want to complain only about what he doesn’t do, but I really think if anyone deserves uniformly positive praise, it’s Auston Matthews.