I'm a leafs fan too, so there's absolutely no bias to this. I see all these hockey Tiktoks and Hockey related posts on Instagram, and all of these people for some reason rank him as a top 3 player in the league. ESPECIALLY on Tiktok, its ridiculous. Am I the only one who thinks he's overrated asf ? Like yeah, he was on a 60 goal pace this season and won the rocket, but that division was god awful defensively. It was so visibly bad. He scores a shit ton of goals but that's literally all. He hasn't hit 90 points a single time in his career and people have him slotted as the third best player in the league.
And there's a common belief going around that he's better than Draisaitl.
Leon Draisaitl is a 50 goal scorer with two 100+ point seasons and a Hart. I don't understand how Mathews could be argued better despite maybe having a better defensive impact, though his offensive numbers aren't even close to Leon's. And don't even get me started on the people saying he's better than Kucherov??? another guy who's had two 100+ point seasons, (128) in 2018, who also SHATTERS records in the playoffs.
There's players in the league that hit 30+ goals and also hit 100 points or more with ease. If you asked me for my top 5 forwards in the league, I'd say its **McDavid, Mack, Kucherov, Draisaitl, and Panarin**, with Mathews right after at **6th.** I honestly think Leaf fans and Canadian media overhypes him way too much. They make him out to be a top 3 player in the league when he's not.