Auston Matthews is one of the greatest players in the NHL and already has a legitimate case to be the greatest Toronto Maple Leaf of all time. Depending on who you debate on this topic, his lack of playoff success will be raised in a case against him, but the reality is, the Maple Leafs have never had anyone capable of scoring 60 goals in a season let alone somebody who can provide Selke-calibre defence alike. His talent and skillset are one of a kind, for both the Maple Leafs and the NHL as a whole, and is rightfully being recognized even though his team hasn’t been able to make any meaningful playoff runs.
Our friends over at DailyFaceoff compiled an all-time ranking of players using the Pidutti Point Share (PPS) system, a model created by Adjusted Hockey founder Paul Pidutti to measure Hockey Hall of Fame worthiness. Straight from the Adjusted Hockey website, the PPS system is defined as such. “The PPS system is a comprehensive measure of Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) worthiness expressed in a single number. Using the methodology, each player in NHL history can be ranked and compared to a HHOF standard based on era and position.
“While no approach can incorporate every element of an individual’s career impact, the methodology uses neutralized information to account for the evolution of the NHL’s scoring environment, season length, roster size, demographics, and playoff structure.”
As you probably could have guessed, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux rank #1 and #2, respectively. Scroll down the list a little bit and you’ll find Matthews ranked at 41st. Below is an excerpt from the article where Pidutti expands on Matthews’ ranking. You can read the full thing here.
“Winning a single playoff round in eight seasons can blur perspective. Similar stigmas followed Yzerman and Ovechkin into their 30s. But Matthews ended last season as the greatest era-adjusted goal scorer at his age. Above Gretzky, Ovechkin, Lemieux, Bossy. Everyone. This isn’t a guy that scores a lot. This is a guy that — with proper context — has scored more than anyone through age 26. The sky’s the limit for the Leafs‘ captain. Is it Stamkos? Brett Hull? Ovechkin?”
It’s true that playoff performance is a strong factor when determining somebody’s Hockey Hall of Fame worthiness. Keith Tkachuk is a good example of this — despite having over 500 goals scored in the NHL, he doesn’t have a Stanley Cup to his name and remains one of the best players not to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Luckily for Matthews, he’s still got at least another decade to make a name for himself in the postseason.
Other active NHL players to crack the Top 50 on the list include Sidney Crosby (#3), Alex Ovechkin (#6), Connor McDavid (#9), Evgeni Malkin (#16), Patrick Kane (#23), Steven Stamkos (#25), Nikita Kucherov (#26), Nathan MacKinnon (#33), and Brad Marchand (#42).
