Matthews ‘matter-of-fact effective’
Observers tell an impressive story about Leafs rookie unfazed by playing in the NHL
This is no secret: the hockey world is astounded by Auston Matthews.
They knew he was going to be good, great even. They just didn’t know it would happen this rapidly, this remarkably.
“I thought he would get 20 goals and 50 points as a rookie, so you can say I’m right, because he’s got 20 goals and 50 points,” said TSN hockey analyst Ray Ferraro. “Except I’m 10 goals short and 10 points short and there’s still about 20 games to go.
“I’ve known about Auston for a long time and I’ve seen video of him for a couple of years because my brother-in-law (Don Granato) coached him at the U.S. development program. I was pretty aware that he was good. I saw him at the world juniors. I saw him at the world championships. l didn’t think he would bring this much, this year,” he said.
“What I like is, he’s kind of spectacular without being spectacular. You know, (Mitch) Marner is dazzling. Matthews really isn’t. He’s matter-of-fact effective. He reminds me a lot of Evgeni Malkin. Size. Skills. Some spectacular moments. And then you look at the end of the night and he’s got four points. I’m blown away by how ready he is to play.”
The Maple Leafs have had less than a handful of quality first-line centreman in the last half century. There has been Mats Sundin and Doug Gilmour and Darryl Sittler and Dave Keon — all of them Hall of Famers — but none of them with the kind of first-year explosion Matthews has shown.
They were all trajectory players: Sundin went from 23 goals to 33 to a career-high 47 in his first three seasons. Sittler jumped from 10 to 15 to 29 to 38 in his first four seasons. Gilmour, less the goal scorer, went from 53 points to 57 to 53 and then made a giant leap to 105 in his fourth season. Keon, never a big goal scorer, scored 20, 26 and 28 in his first three seasons, which included a Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.
At a time when it’s more difficult to score, Matthews has 31 goals and 55 points in 63 games. Like fellow rookie Patrik Laine, he could end up at 40 goals. Of the Top 30 goal-scoring rookies in NHL history, none have come from this decade. Only two, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, come from the past 20 years. From the past 25 years, you add in Teemu Selanne and Eric Lindros. The top three goal-scoring rookies in history have been wingers — Selanne, Mike Bossy and Ovechkin.
“I’m amazed by Auston,” said former Leaf Jeff O’Neill, who suggested on Twitter the other night that he wouldn’t trade Matthews for any other player in hockey, including Connor McDavid. There may have been some hyperbole in his tweet, but not much.
“Whenever you draft somebody first overall, there’s always that thing. You know he’s supposed to be great. But how soon?” O’Neill said. “If he had 10 goals right now and ended up with 15, you would probably say, ‘not a bad first year.’ But I think he’s blown it out of the water. He announced his entrance to the NHL on opening night. To become a superstar in your first year is quite a thing.”
Granato saw this coming. He just didn’t want to say it for the record. He figured Matthews would be under enough pressure in Toronto.
“The hardest thing for me was to keep my mouth shut,” Granato said. “I wanted to talk about how great this kid was, but I never thought it would be fair to put that on the kid. That’s added expectations. So I bit my tongue a lot. I remember calling (my brother) Tony and I said, ‘I have a kid who’s going to be the next Crosby.’
“And he said ‘Are you out of your mind? You’ve only had him for 10 days.’
“And I said, ‘This one’s different. Believe me.’ ”
Marc Crawford coached Matthews at Zurich of the Swiss league. He knew Matthews was going to be a good-to-great NHL player. But like Granato, he didn’t want to put additional pressure on the youngster.
“I was convinced of it when I watched him in the world championships and I saw John Hynes play him as his first-line centre,” the Ottawa Senators associate coach said.
“He did exactly with the U.S. team what he’s doing in Toronto. To me, he’s right there with McDavid. When you’re in the position he’s in, you’re playing against the top centre, you’re playing against the best defenders. That doesn’t phase Auston. He welcomes it.”
Pierre McGuire, the NBC broadcaster, was having a conversation recently with Mario Lemieux, who asked him about Matthews.
“I told him, ‘There’s a Mario Lemieux-cool to his game.’ And Mario just smiled. Not a lot of kids have the ability to not get rattled by anything. Jaromir (Jagr) was moody and temperamental when he was a kid. Sidney (Crosby) would get angry and frustrated. You’d see the same sometimes from Malkin. You don’t see that from Auston.
“I have amazing respect for the way he carries himself as a person, the way he plays and with the consistent growth. I think we’re all a little amazed by what he’s doing. And this is just the beginning.”