Not many would debate the decision to promote Auston Matthews as the Maple Leafs captain ahead of the 2024-25 season. “We believe Auston’s unique qualities as a hockey player and ability to inspire his teammates will drive our team’s success moving forward,” General Manager Brad Treliving said as the Leafs hoped for a new beginning after years of postseason letdowns. But as we know, it ended up being the same old same old, causing Auston Matthews, for all his virtues as a player, to be left out of a list he’d normally be expected to make.
The Maple Leafs are a team in flux, and the last thing their fans probably needed to see was their captain struggling last season, battling unknown injuries. It’s clear they believe in his quality, but the latest NHL charts really paint the Leafs center in a bad light. We are talking about the NHL Top Players list being released by the NHL Network over the past weeks. On September 29, they released the names from 11-20, and NHL Media shared the big reveal on their X platform: “Auston Matthews comes in at #️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ on NHL Network’s #NHLTopPlayers list!”
What’s more damning is you can see them mention at the bottom that Matthews placed third on the same list in 2024. A crushing verdict that the SDPN Sports Executive Producer, Drew Livingstone, couldn’t really agree with. He retweeted NHL Media’s post with the caption: “I’m all for poking leafs fans but not having Auston in the top-10 players list is just dumb”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
The other names ahead of him are Jack Eichel, Mikko Rantanen, Kiril Kaprizov, and David Pastrnak. And then there’s the top 10 list that will come out next. So, how does the USA captain measure in comparison to the above-mentioned names? Does he really deserve to be in 15th place? And a lot more questions come up. How did he get demoted from 3rd to 15th in one season?
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Well, if you look at the numbers, Auston Matthews did have a below-par 2024-25 season by his standards – 33 goals and 45 assists in 67 regular-season games. Except for Kiril Kaprizov (25 goals and 31 assists in 41 regular-season games), all the other players on the list got more points than Matthews. In the playoffs, Matthews was unable to rally the Leafs as they got destroyed on home ice by the Panthers in Game 7 of the 2nd round series, bringing their season to another early close.
Since the charts came out, the internet has been divided into sections, with people taking sides regarding the Matthews ranking. Some are saying it’s about right. Some fans are vehement that Matthews deserves to be lower in the ranking, questioning like qualities. But one group has backed Matthews to be back in the top-10, while defending the Leafs captain.
Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports
Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports
Fans’ argument for Auston Matthews’ low 2024-25 numbers
In reply to Drew Livingstone’s post, one fan commented, “It’s probably cause he just didn’t meet expectations last season, due to him being injured but the year before he got 69 goals which is a huge accomplishment and that’s why he was 3rd the year before. The rankings are based on a yearly thing not a career thing”. That comment might as well put the debate to bed, as everything he said was on point. The Leafs captain had played the entire 2024-25 season with an injury.
In fact, Matthews revealed it in the end-of-season availability media communications. “I got injured in training camp,” the 28-year-old shared in May, according to The New York Times. “I wasn’t feeling great throughout the first month or so of the season, took some time off, went to Germany (to see doctors), did all these things to try to feel better.” And it was a topsy-turvy season in which he missed 15 games. “There was obviously some good stretches where I felt good. There were some stretches where I didn’t feel very good. Definitely a tough year physically.”
So, the subdued numbers can be justified from a player who got 69 goals and 38 assists (107 points) just the season before. In fact, the 2024-25 numbers were the lowest since the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020-21. Can this just be a blip? One fan wrote, “God forbid any of the top 5 have an injury plagued season and we’re to be dropped the season after”.
Well, if the charts are based on seasonal performance, one can justify Auston Matthews dropping to a lower position. After all, it’s about who performed the best and who had the numbers. But the fan felt a bit hurt by the 15th ranking. “He didn’t score a bagillion goals last year, so he must be bad 🙄,” the comment read.
One fan had a more nuanced take. “Gladly take it, now he’s underrated. He had a rough season, if it’s rankings based on just last year, he wouldn’t be in the top 10. Last 5 years, he’s top 5”. Justified? Well, here’s a fact for you: since Matthews made his debut in the NHL in 2016, he has scored the most goals (401)!!
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
One fan wrote, “He’s had multiple quiet seasons and playoffs in a row (yes, due to injury), let’s hope he comes back strong this season, and he’ll back in that top 10 in no time. Can you really blame NHL Network for not grossly overweighing older seasons as opposed to more recent ones?”. Well, we don’t know how the evaluations are done. But clearly, the subpar 2024-25 performance did have something to do with Matthews dropping from 3rd to straight 15th.
Now, as the new season is just days away, we wait to see how Auston Matthews performs. He said in May that he will recover 100%, so we will get to see the real player and what he can do.