Toronto Maple Leafs vs Edmonton: Who Has the Better Stars?

The Toronto Maple Leafs core is playing exceptional this year, but are they better than the Edmonton Oilers?

Overall, the Toronto Maple Leafs are clearly a better team than the Edmonton Oilers but if you swapped their “core four’s,” would the team records change?

There’s been a debate between the Leafs and Oilers over the past few days, ever since Tim and Friends sent out their now infamous tweet.  Toronto’s top-four players ( William Nylander, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews) have been on a tear lately, highlighted by Marner’s incredible point-streak.

As usual, the Toronto media is falling in-love with the Leafs current hot-streak and giving credit to Kyle Dubas’ approach to constructing a hockey team. With roughly 50 percent of the salary-cap dedicated to these four players, they’re all finally playing exceptional at the same time and proving that a roster filled with “studs and duds” can work in the NHL.

Some will say that we still haven’t seen this philosophy work in the playoffs, but you have to give credit where it’s due, and the Leafs took the team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals three straight years to game seven, where they lost by a single goal.  Clearly, if they can do that, then the philosophy works.

https://twitter.com/timandfriends/status/1601781279875563521

Those core-four are providing virtually all of the offense and it’s working, while the same thing is happening in Edmonton, yet their team isn’t winning as much.

So, who has the better core?

Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers: Who Has the Better Core?

Here are each players stats this year:

Edmonton Oilers (stats: hockeydb.com)

• Connor McDavid: 28 games played, 25 goals, 54 points
• Leon Draisaitl: 28 games played, 19 goals, 46 points
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: 28 games played, 14 goals, 33 points
• Zach Hyman: 27 games played, 9 goals, 28 points

Toronto Maple Leafs:

• Mitch Marner: 29 games played, 12 goals, 35 points
• Auston Matthews: 29 games played, 15 goals, 34 points
• William Nylander: 29 games played, 17 goals, 33 points
• John Tavares: 29 games played, 13 goals, 28 points

There’s only one player in the NHL that the Leafs would ever consider trading Matthews for and it’s McDavid. If McDavid was having the season he’s currently having, but doing it in Toronto, the hockey world would blow up and the Leafs would be instant Stanley Cup favorites.

McDavid is a video game and Draisaitl isn’t too far behind. Those two have put up insane point production over the past few years. Matthews won the Hart Trophy last year and still finished with less points than McDavid and Draisaitl, which is crazy to remember.

Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman are good players, but I’d rather have Tavares and Nylander. I can understand an argument against paying $11 million for Tavares but we’re not talking about price.

From a skill-only perspective, I’m talking Nylander and Tavares all day.

Marner is one of the hottest players in hockey this year, but he still has 19 less points than McDavid.

So, where do I stand with this overall? Is Edmonton’s core better than Toronto’s?

I still think Toronto has the better overall core, although Edmonton has the best player. I would take the combination of McDavid and Draisaitl over Matthews and Marner, but I’d much rather have Nylander and Tavares over Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman.

McDavid/Draisaitl vs. Matthews/Marner are much closer in comparison over Nylander/Tavares vs. Hyman/Nugent-Hopkins and for that reason only, I’m taking the Leafs core.

I know Nugent-Hopkins/Hyman have the same amount of points as Nylander/Tavares, but it’s because of who they play with. Without McDavid and Draisaitl, Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins wouldn’t be point-per-game players and they can’t drive a line by themselves, whereas Nylander/Tavares can.

So although I’d rather have McDavid over Matthews and probably Draisaitl over Marner, Tavares and Nylander are way more valuable than Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman combined, so I’m still taking the Toronto Maple Leafs core all day.