I know, i looked at his stats. But he's not a superstar. I know you're a Leafs fan but IMO he's a 'star' goalie. He's a great goalie, yes, but to me a 'superstar' player is maybe top 20 players in the league or so, which Andersen is not.

This season he is easily among the top 5 goalies in the league. If the Leafs are going to win the cup we need Andersen to play like crazy.

Yes, you do, and same with Matthews. Imagine what would have happened in Pittsburgh if Crosby struggled the last two playoffs. They wouldn't have won cups. He got the Conn Smythe over Murray.

Matthews needs to be good yes, but he won't need to stand on his head because we have studs like Marner, Nylander, JVR, and Kadri to also find ways to score.

True, but Curtis McElhinney has been great this year, so if Andersen wasn't there, they'd still have him. And i know they need Andersen playing at his best to win the cup but it's the same with Matthews. They need them both, but i think we're gonna agree to disagree here. I understand what you're saying about Andersen, being the goalie and everything, but being the superstar, and being the 1st line centre, is also a huge role. Either could win the Conn Smythe.

If I had to chose between losing Matthews or Andersen to a season ending injury, I'd take Matthews without a doubt. Not because Matthews is less valuable but because we have such great offence that we could replace him (see Nazem Kadri). McEllhiney is great but he hasn't played for long stretches or playoff games. Just look at when we lost Matthews this season, we survived, and during these times guys like Kadri and Marner stepped up big time.

Gary Bettman: "The Conn Smythe trophy, for the most valuable player in the playoffs"

When I say valuable I mean in the terms of skill. RAIF, I don't think you watch the Leafs, and if you did regularly you'd see that Andersen is far more critical to our success than Matthews. Again, I am not taking a shot at Matthews skill level, he is a phenomenal player, but with Marner, Kadri, Nylander, etc all playing great, Matthews is far less critical as we proved when he was injured.

Yeah, i watch the Leafs quite a bit actually. Like i said, we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. I think we both have good reasons for taking one of them over the other. For the Leafs there is no obvious #1 Conn Smythe winner. There is for almost no team right now.

The leafs wpuld be nowhere without anderson. He faces the most SOG of any goalie and still wins the vast majority of games for the leafs. If they go anywhere past the second round, he is undeniably a superstar player.

I agree, they would be nowhere without him, but the same can be said for Matthews, even with all the centres they have.

Then how come we did fine when Matthews was hurt?

@Daryl lol i think we're both wrong so far. Probably Zach Hyman.

To me Marner has been the only guy to play three good games. Hyman to though.

You're right, it would be Marner.

the world must be ending Monday as predicted. leafs fans arguing which leaf is going to the win the conn smythe. mcbackup had better stats this anderson, I guess the leafs have two superstar goalies.

We were talking hypothetically. Just having fun.

I know at this point it doesn't look too likely that they win the cup, we were just talking about who would win it IF they do win the cup. To tell the truth i don't even remember how we started talking about the Conn Smythe and the Leafs. It started about JVR.

Anyway, no, the world won't end until the Leafs are a second away from the cup lol

Nope, it didn't.
Also, what? Leafs fans? I'm a rangers and isles fan as you can probably tell by my username.

I think JVR would fit nicely in Nashville. He would instantly make their 2nd line PP better.
A big body presence in front of the opposing net, he would have a field day with all those Preds point shots and juicy rebounds.
Nashville also has the depth to shelter his minutes in the D zone.