2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

[rdowdall]

If he wasn’t coming off multiple mystery wrist and back injuries, I’d say Matthews and the Leafs are idiots for trying to be Bergeron/Barkov when he has preternatural scoring ability. But since he is just scoring a pedestrian 40ish without doing anything on the PP, sure, why not strive to be a shutdown centre while doing it.

This is why I brought up the Yzerman comparison. You know the lore that surrounds the transformation of Yzerman from perennial 40 - 65 goal scorer, to a dude who gave all that up to become a Stanley cup champion after a single conversation with Scotty Bowman..

 

[Frank E]

If Woll is only out one week, I'll eat my hat.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

If he wasn’t coming off multiple mystery wrist and back injuries, I’d say Matthews and the Leafs are idiots for trying to be Bergeron/Barkov when he has preternatural scoring ability. But since he is just scoring a pedestrian 40ish without doing anything on the PP, sure, why not strive to be a shutdown centre while doing it.

Kopitar and Toews were literally the two NHLers that Matthews was compared to the most as a prospect so it's not like this stuff is new or came out of nowhere.

 

[herman]

Kopitar and Toews were literally the two NHLers that Matthews was compared to the most as a prospect so it's not like this stuff is new or came out of nowhere.

Yes. And then he scored 4 goals in his debut and it wasn’t exactly a fluke.