Auston Matthews lands impressive rank among NHL players since the year 2000

The Toronto Maple Leafs' resident sniper has done nothing but light the lamp at a nearly unrivaled pace since coming into the league in 2016-17, culminating in a 69-goal campaign in 2023-24 to capture his 3rd career Rocket Richard Trophy in the last 4 years.

Matthews has been absolutely electric for the Maple Leafs during his career, but the one thing that has eluded him has been any real postseason success. Still, when it came time for ESPN to list their top-25 NHL players in the 21st century, even though many of the other players listed have either won a Stanley Cup or gone deep in the playoffs, Matthews still found himself a generous rank, given the individual accomplishments he's been able to achieve to date.

Not only does Matthews have 3 Rocket Richard Trophies, but he has also captured a Hart Memorial Trophy, a Ted Lindsay Award and a Calder Trophy. He was also the first American-born player to join the 60-goal club twice, including last season's 69-goal performance, which is the most by any player since before the salary cap era, when Mario Lemieux was still patrolling the offensive zone in 1995-96.

So where did Matthews rank on thus prestigious list? ESPN had Matthews ranked 15th, behind former teammate Joe Thornton, who ranked 14th.

The players who ranked 11th-13th were Zdeno Chara, Steven Stamkos and Leon Draisaitl. As for the top 10, here's how they ranked, in order, from 1st to 10th (Stanley Cup winners are marked with an SC):

1. Sidney Crosby (SC)
2. Alex Ovechkin (SC)
3. Connor McDavid
4. Patrick Kane (SC)
5. Nicklas Lidstrom (SC)
6. Nathan MacKinnon (SC)
7. Martin Brodeur (SC)
8. Henrik Lundqvist
9. Evgeni Malkin (SC)
10. Patrice Bergeron (SC)

As Matthews continues to shine, he'll likely begin to climb this list in the years ahead, but with a Stanley Cup on his resumé, you would really be able to make a strong case that he belongs in the top-10.

Source: ESPN.com
Ranking the top 25 NHL players of the 21st century