• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

Laine v Matthews

I mean let's be reality, this guy was born a couple days away from arguably being a 3rd overall pick. I think it's worth debating whethee he's a shoo in 1st overall now over younger players on the upswing who are pulling Mario shit against top competition.
 
zeke said:
I mean let's be reality, this guy was born a couple days away from arguably being a 3rd overall pick. I think it's worth debating whethee he's a shoo in 1st overall now over younger players on the upswing who are pulling Mario shit against top competition.
Click to expand...

Who is pulling Mario shit against top competition?

Weird that you would shit on LM for exaggeration earlier and then do that.


Yeah. Matthews was 48 hours away from being the youngest you can possibly be in a draft class, and could have arguably been drafted 3rd in the best draft of our generation, behind 2 consensus franchise centremen, one of which was PPG+ in his rookie season, the other putting up 56 points while being almost a full calendar year older than Matthews....and Matthews very well could have been drafted 2nd over Eichel. Of course, he would have been drafted ahead of another guy with franchise 1C potential who goes #1 in a lot of drafts over the last 15 years, and another guy that we got who has done and continues to do near historic level shit in the OHL.

Last year was a draft with 4 #1 overall quality prospects. And Matthews would have gone, 100 times out of 100, ahead of 2 of them, and probably ahead of a 3rd on a fair number of draft boards.

I fail to see how that's a knock against Matthews.
 
Last edited:
Matthews is the prototypical franchise centre -- size, skates like the wind, can score from anywhere, etc etc. His coach has compared him to guys like Sakic Kopitar and Toews. Shanahan has described Matthews as a guy who's been a leader his whole life.

In short, we're definitely drafting Matthews.
 
zeke said:
I mean let's be reality, this guy was born a couple days away from arguably being a 3rd overall pick. I think it's worth debating whethee he's a shoo in 1st overall now over younger players on the upswing who are pulling Mario shit against top competition.
Click to expand...
I mean this time last year, sure, Matthews was probabyl going to be the #3 pick, although even that was debatable. His stock improved quite a bit this year though and if there was a redraft it would be a much more interesting question of who goes 2nd. Regardless, they are certainly a big 3 and in any other year all 3 are great 1st overall picks.
 
Matthews has been the consensus #1 for 2 years now. He's still favoured by 80% + of NHL scouts and scouting services. If you are thinking of taking laine, you're overthinking.

Take Matthews, be done with it. Move on to figuring out who you are taking with the Pittsburgh pick and what you are doing in free agency. There is no need to spend a lot of thought on who you take first overall. This is as obvious a pick as McDavid last year. This is not to say that Matthews is as good as McDavid (he isn't) just that Matthews vs Laine is the same as McDavid vs Eichel. Eichel wasn't in McDavid's stratosphere, and Laine isn't in the Matthews/Eichel stratosphere. Is Laine good? sure. Is he challenging Matthews? Only to those who want to build hype and aren't grounded in reality. .
 
Killer93 said:
Are we seriously debating Matthews vs Laine? Seriously? Really?
Click to expand...
I think zeke is the only guy in favour of taking Laine instead of Matthews. Maybe LoF too.

It's not a bad thing there's a debate though. A lot of good info's been dug up in this thread---but it all just reinforces for me that Matthews is the guy.
 
I think it's made for a rare worthwhile discussion around here.....Mind z & 101 have laid out some great information pertaining to Matthews value & potential.

Even if zeke is just playing devils advocate (he's never said Laine > Matthews, only that he's not positive he isnt).....it's made for a good convo.

Compare that to the tripe of arguing a players value because of his country of birth?.....and the board is already starting to rebound to what it used to be, versus what it's been the last year or so.

Now we just need PTBNL to drop an information bomb on us, and share his take.
 
I will be completely shocked if Toronto doesn't take Matthews over Laine. Considering they now have competent management I simply cannot see them passing on Matthews as the only justification for doing so would be stupidity.

Unless Matthews flat out tells Shanahan that he will not sign with Toronto, which is highly unlikely, Matthews will be a Leaf.

Pisses me off to no end either...
 
MindzEye said:
The Toronto media needs something to sell.
Click to expand...

Exactly

Go back 12 months and you can find articles about Eichel being better than McDavid.

Go back to the Tavares draft and you can find the whole Hedman thing, some even pimped Matt Duchene as the best of the three.

Go back to the Patrick Kane draft and you had people saying that JvR and Kyle Turris were better.

Crosby is the only draft where it was pretty undisputed in the media who the number 1 guy was. But every other year they try to sell suspense on who the draft pick will be. With the Leafs now number 1, i expect that they will push Laine even harder now, cause they will want Leaf fans to tune into the draft for the suspense of which player is taken?
 
LeafGm said:
I think zeke is the only guy in favour of taking Laine instead of Matthews. Maybe LoF too.

It's not a bad thing there's a debate though. A lot of good info's been dug up in this thread---but it all just reinforces for me that Matthews is the guy.
Click to expand...

No, I think you have to take Matthews over Laine, but I do believe there is a chance Laine becomes the more dominant of the two. Zeke has made some good points, though the guys on the other side of the fence have been more convincing, making me feel better about the situation.

It is, as was said, sort of like McDavid versus Eichel, and Eichel wasn't even a winger.

Just wish he was born in Toronto.
 
In fairness Laine is a hell of a player, having a hell of a season. I agree with his teammate in the article that he looks almost exactly like Kovy. Big, strong, fast winger that loves to shoot and thats a good thing because he can score from anywhere. You see him hovering around the left point on his off wing sneaking into goal scoring positions, and its Kovy. He's also a franchise changing player. If he has a healthy career you can easily see him challenging for 500 goals. When I saw Columbus come up at #3 there was a huge sense of relief. Its hard not to watch him and want him on your team.

I just think Matthews is just as good of a goal scorer, but does everything else at an elite level too at a more important position. He is the ideal cornerstone center if you could build one from scratch. He literally has it all. Elite size, elite scoring ability, elite playmaking ability, elite puck skills, elite hand eye coordination, elite IQ, elite competitiveness, elite skating, plays the game physically. He's the kind of player great teams are built around. You don't get very many opportunities to add a player like that. The last one the Leafs had was in 1994.
 
Last edited:
I don't care where he was born.

The arguments about his post lottery interview are dumb. He's a 18 year old kid preparing to play in the World Championships getting asked questions at 330am about a team he has not idea if he'll even be picked by. In any interview i've watched of him he's always seemed very composed and able to articulate answers without much change in emotion. This to me shows someone that has been in the spotlight a very long time and knows how to handle himself. Very professional.

We have a chance to draft a good one. Its no surprise the second the Leafs win the lottery we start hearing about him being disappointed that Arizona didn't win. Or that he's below Eichel. Blah blah blah.

I take Matthews. Here is our potential PPG 2 way big strong center. He's excelled everywhere he's played.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
No, I think you have to take Matthews over Laine, but I do believe there is a chance Laine becomes the more dominant of the two. Zeke has made some good points, though the guys on the other side of the fence have been more convincing, making me feel better about the situation.

It is, as was said, sort of like McDavid versus Eichel, and Eichel wasn't even a winger.

Just wish he was born in Toronto.
Click to expand...
Okay? And there's a chance that Provorov, Connor, Hanifin are better than Marner. Marner was born in Toronto though, so does that make it okay if he is worse than one of the three?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top