Matthews has taken winding road to NHL
Projected top pick in draft discovered love of hockey going to games with uncle
Auston Matthews has gone from the cactus-lined neighbourhoods of Scottsdale, Ariz., to the picturesque city of Zurich, Switzerland, on his way to becoming the most coveted 18-year-old hockey player on the planet.
His has surely been a hockey road less travelled.
And the next part of his journey will be more or less completed Saturday around 8 p.m., when ping pong balls drop in the Hockey Night In Canada studios. Every Canadian team has a ticket in this lottery, with Matthews the prize.
The Maple Leafs are in dire need of a franchise centre like Matthews. Finishing in last place this year, which was part of a bigger rebuilding plan, has given them the best odds — 20 per cent — of landing the first overall choice in the June draft. Fourteen teams are in Saturday’s lottery.
“(Matthews) is special,” says Dan Marr, the director of NHL Central Scouting. “He’s got the pro experience. He’s got the physical maturity. This kid’s motor is never off. It’s go. It’s 100 per cent all the time. There’s never a down shift. This kid goes hard. Even in practice. He loves the game.”
Scouting isn’t an inexact science, but some players, such as Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, simply stand head-and-shoulders above their competition in their draft year. Matthews, who has been projected to go No. 1 in 2016 since he was 16, is one of those players.
Matthews might not be in the Crosby-McDavid stratosphere when he gets to the NHL — he’s more likened to Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings or Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg — but he’s going to help whatever team gets him.
“A lot of kids have talent,” says Edgar Salis, general manager of the Zurich Lions of the Swiss Elite League, where Matthews played this year. “He’s the whole package for me.”
Matthews discovered hockey as a toddler thanks to the 1996 move by the Winnipeg Jets to the desert in Arizona, where they were renamed the Coyotes. His uncle Billy took him to games.
He told his father, Brian, he wanted to play. And soon Matthews was the best player in the small — but incredibly well-coached, thanks in part to a core of retired NHLers — Phoenix hockey program.
Eventually, Matthews landed with the U.S. Development Program. He was so good at17 that he played in his first of two world junior tournaments, an event meant for 19-yearolds.
Matthews now stands as the poster child of commissioner Gary Bettman’s Sun Belt strategy that saw the league move or expand to warmweather cities through the 1990s and is now producing players like Seth Jones, from Texas, and Shayne Gostisbehere, from Florida.
Matthews blazed another trail last year in signing with Zurich for one season. He was 17 and had graduated high school. He had not committed to either a university program in the United States, nor the Everett Silvertips, the WHL team that held his Canadian Hockey League rights.
“On the ice, he was excellent, he helped us,” says Salis. “Off the ice, easy handling. A really good kid. You see that his childhood was really good. His parents raised him really well. He came in as17-year-old, but in his head he was like a 25-year-old. His talent, it was outstanding.”
His mother stayed with Matthews the entire season. His sister and father were frequent visitors.
“I think that was the best decision,” Salis says of the Matthews family. “Otherwise, alone as a17-year-old, it’s not easy. It’s a new culture. Having your mom around is always good.”
There are a handful of what-ifs when it comes to talking about Matthews. What if, for example, he was born on his due date, and not two weeks later on Sept. 17? If that were the case, he’d have made the Sept. 15 cut-off for the 2015 draft. Most believe he would have gone third, behind McDavid and Jack Eichel.
And what if the original Winnipeg Jets had remained in Manitoba, never moving to Phoenix and exposing the game to a region of new fans? He might be playing baseball, his other favourite sport.
It’s doubtful any North American teen will soon duplicate what Matthews did: play pro in Europe during his draft year. Firstly, he was aided by his late birthday which created the rare free-agent opportunity. And secondly, he was uniquely able to play with men.
So can Matthews blaze his trail straight to the NHL?
“For me, it’s a no-brainer,” says Silas. “He’s good. He’s really good. In our league, we had a lot of ex-NHL guys, and those guys were not even close. From how I saw it, he was the best player in the league.”
“This kid’s motor is never off. It’s go. It’s 100 per cent all the time. There’s never a down shift.” DAN MARR NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING DIRECTOR