Auston Matthews being disrespected by popular Canadian sportsbook
Each and every season, we see players - even stars - rise and fall in the stats department. We can chalk that up to the ebbs and flows of the game, but there's no question that injuries can play a role in how a player performs throughout the year.
In the case of Auston Matthews, last season was a bit of a down season when you compare it to his 2021-22 campaign. In 2021-22, Matthews amassed an incredible 60 goals and 106 points in just 73 games. However, in 2022-23, Matthews managed to score just 40 goals and 85 points in 74 games. He was still above the point-per-game mark, but there's no question for anyone who watched him with any sort of regularity last season that something wasn't quite right with him.
Matthews had offseason wrist surgery following his 2021-22 campaign, which had him miss the start of the 2022-23 season and get off to a bit of a slower start than expected. Then, early on in the season, Matthews was cross-checked in the ribs/back by Stars captain Jamie Benn, which left him wincing and doubled over on the bench in pain.
For much of the season, Matthews was spotted playing in a full wrist brace, which is a pretty good indicator that his wrist was not quite at 100%. The back-to-back Rocket Richard Trophy winner had also suffered a knee injury mid-season that kept him out of action for a few weeks.
With Matthews playing at well below 100% for much of the year, if not all year, as you can imagine, there are some who are a bit down on the 25-year-old, who just one year prior, was being compared to Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon. Now, Bodog Canada has Matthews a few tiers below some of the league's top players, which is, quite frankly, laughable.
The image above shows Matthews in "Tier C", below the likes of McDavid, MacKinnon, Pastrnak and Draisaitl. Perhaps even more surprising, Bodog also has Matthews listed below Matthew Tkachuk, Nikita Kucherov, Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen. Bodog has Matthews currently slotted in with Brady Tkachuk, Mitch Marner, Sidney Crosby, Jack Eichel, Jack Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov.
Honestly, I understand that these lists are completely subjective and that sometimes the margins are so thin between players that the lines can become skewed, but let's not kid ourselves here. Auston Matthews is a superstar among stars. He is elite. Connor McDavid may be the best player in the world by a large margin, and maybe he deserves his own tier. But to suggest that Matthews is beneath the level of MacKinnon Pastrnak and Draisaitl is certainly a take. Matthews is a generational goal scorer. He's also a very good 200-foot player, which cannot be said of someone like Draisaitl or even Pastrnak.
I normally don't put too much stock into what I see within these lists, but this one, to me, seems more like they just wanted to put Matthews a little too low on the list to bait Leaf fans into engaging with the post. Well, I'd say it's probably mission accomplished, because so far, it's working.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 15 | 323 ANSWERS Auston Matthews being disrespected by popular Canadian sportsbook Which tier does Auston Matthews belong in among the top NHL forwards? | ||
| Tier A | 205 | 63.5 % |
| Tier B | 82 | 25.4 % |
| Tier C | 17 | 5.3 % |
| Tier D | 19 | 5.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
