Nah, Matthews is better

Ollofson

Or you can read the post

What about him?

Both are great. If you swapped roles and changed nothing else I think eichel would lead the league in points.

Hes the next best forward.

What an explanation!

Ye, he would. Not even a question, he has the longest point streak this year I'm pretty sure, on one of the worst teams

I know, it's really concise. Don't know how you could ask for a better argument than that.

I did, couldn't agree more🤷🏼‍♂️ remember that argument about McDavid and Draisaitl with the best unit guarding McDavid. Well when it was tavares and Marner, Matthews was the secondary unit, last year that helped his production

Ye, but ur a leafs fan, u can't admit Eichels better🤷🏼‍♂️

I was just playing around. But in all seriousness, Matthews is better. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Eichel, he's a tremendous talent, but Matthews has the upper hand.

Because Matthews started his career quicker, Eichel rn is the better player, he tilts the ice more in his favor.

Keep in mind being the only major star on his team, he's the guy that gets the puck every single time. He also plays with good players- olofsson and reinhart are no snubs. Matthews only started playing with Marner in like December, and otherwise only played like one game with him. His line mates have been

2016-17 (rookie year)
Rookie Hyman
Half of the time Rookie Brown
Half of the Rookie Nylander
Not bad per se, but not exactly the best line to work with, especially given that they were all rookies

2017-18
2nd year Hyman
2nd year Nylander
Pretty good, but is it better than reinhart/good skinner?

2018-19
Kapanen (until Nylander came back)
Johnsson
Awful post contract strike Nylander
Not terrible players, but nothing to envy. Eichel was playing with 40g skinner

2019-20
It gets pretty good here obviously.

In terms of defensemen, don't forget that muzzin and barrie are new additions. For years he had to play with Rielly (great of course), Zaitsev (yikes), Hainsey (yikes), Gardiner (yikes when it matters most). The sabres also have good defensemen as well - dahlin and jokiharju are pretty darn good, as are montour, risto, miller, etc. Nearly as good a d depth as what we've got
My takeaway is that Matthews hasn't necessarily played with better players, but he makes the players that he plays with infinitely better. He had rookie Johnsson and rookie brown score 20 each, and the next year when they are taken off of his line, they play score half of that.

I also might add that Eichel is a year more experienced and should be better, but isn't. Goal scorers are also more rare than guys who rack up assists, and don't get me wrong, jack can score, but they are two different calibres of goal scorers.

Not trying to take away from Eichel- he's great, and really close- but he's not Matthews.

How so?

Matthews was the second unit yes, but his wingers were rookie Johnsson and slumping kapanen. The quality of players that he played with wasn't great

Because Eichs where better? U got Skinner and pominville that year

Matthews is better. His isolated impact on overall goal creation if far better. Hes also a top 5 player based off of xGAR and probably better then top 15 if he had a better penalty differential- something he had absolutely no control over. If the refs called more penalties for him he would easily be a top 10 player in the nhl.

Eichel has also had good linemates. Olofsson, reinhart (who's been slightly better then nylander so far), skinner and Dahlin.

For the majority of Matthews 1st season he was stuck with hyman and brown. The season nylander sat part of out he ended up playing the majority with kapanen and Marleau. His overall career point totals would have been higher had he been on the 1st unit powerplay for the first two seasons but Rielly/Gardiner, Marner, Kadri, Bozak and JVR were so good that he got very little pp time. When he did it was with Zaitsev, Nylander, Komarov/Marleau and brown fir the majority of the time in the slot. People dont give him enough credit that he was actually able to accomplish anything with nylander and no one else on the pp

Thats still an opinion, i watched every Leafs Sabres game this year and Eichel was always the most dominant player on the ice. Matthews is obviously the better goal scorer, which is why hes often compared to Stamkos. But Eichel is a playmaker, hes much more of Malkin type player

I don't trust people that have a confident opinion on Matthews v Eichel. Both superstar 1C's at the beginning of their careers.

yes, you had 40G prime skinner! Matthews had no proven NHL players until essentially this year now that Marner and Hyman are proven. He played with a 40g scorer in his prime and a decent vet- obviously not 1st line material but neither is Johnsson, and neither was kapanen.

Exactly. Everyone talks about how eichel had nobody to play with, and act like the leafs have had a Matthews-Tavares-Marner line for his whole career

I think that it has been Matthews so far, but I agree - it's so early to try to decipher between the two because we don't really know yet, and who knows, maybe this will always be a debate, even when they've both retired

You players are good comparisons and it helps that Matthews was better in those years, I mean Eichel like MacKinnon is a late bloomer, took him a couple seasons to fully mature, now he plays rediculiuos minutes and leads the team in everything. He led the teams powerplay to #1 in the league early on in the season, and he made Skinner a 40 goal scorer

I think we both have good points, and right now I don't know that there's an answer- obviously I think it's Matthews, but its not like I think he's any more than marginally better - maybe some day down the line it will be more clear which is better, but I could also easily see this being a debate when they retire