Quoting: pharrow
you mean a defenseman that's playing over 19 minutes a night with good results? That kind of defenseman?
Here is what I think. You got your opinion of players simply from capfriendly. Where a hand full of people demonize a guy and then he holds no value. But some scrub over rated player becomes worth the world. Seen this over and over on here. Much like they did to Josh Anderson this summer, while everyone hyped Bennett up till he fell flat on his face again.
You haven't watched him play, and believe me, Crosby, Jake and Rust aren't "dragging the penguins into the playoffs." It does take a team effort. Don't even Malkin me, he played awful till he woke up this season and he's been out injured and they are still winning games. Their defense has been a rock. Guys cap friendly demonized like Ceci are just plugging away playing decently. I'm sure you'd bad mouth him too. Because that's what capfriendly does. But there he is playing well. Ain't no one saying of the penguins, there is the defense falling apart. Or they are weak on defense. You don't here that anywhere on here. Every post you see is not them trying to find a defenseman, it's them looking for forward help. Always trading away their strength on defense to get it.
But hey, keep thinking Reily is better, while you're over there coughing up 45 more goals in 2 games.
I disagree with Capfriendly's valuation of players all the time. I also often disagree with Reddit, and especially Twitter. But in this case everyone saying Mike Matheson isn't good and has negative value for that contract is 100% right. Let's look at his stats:
Offensively, his 5 points in 26 games is a 16 goal pace for a full 82-game season, his lowest point total since his rookie season. But points aren't as important for defensemen so let's look at some of his other stats. His CF% of 48.1 means that when he's on the ice at 5v5, the Pens are giving up more scoring chances than they're generating, which is especially bad considering he's on a team in a playoff spot. His relative CF% is -1.5, which means that the Pens are generating more scoring chances and allowing fewer when he's off the ice. In Matheson's defense he does have a high percentage of defensive zone starts (59.7), and he has been doing well to use his body this season in both hits and blocking shots, but these are the qualities you look for in a 3rd pairing dman. His special teams numbers are even worse, with an abysmal relative CF% of -13.6 on the PP and -8.9 on the PK. Overall his stats aren't what you're looking for in a 2nd pairing defenseman playing 19+ minutes per night, and it's definitely not what you're looking for in a player being paid nearly $5 per year until 2026, especially with a flat cap.
Now let's look at Mike Reilly:
Offensively, he's having a career year with 14 points in 34 games, a 34 point pace over 82 games. Already more than double Matheson, but again, points aren't as important for defensemen. Reilly has a CF% of 55.2, higher than I expected, pretty good for a rebuilding team, and his relative CF% is 8.3, which is also higher than I expected and shows that Reilly is a positive contributor for the Sens. Reilly has slightly less defensive zone starts (57.0), but not enough of a difference to make up for a 7.1 CF% difference between the two players. Reilly uses his body to hit and block shots a decent amount but not as much as Matheson, so point Matheson there. Looking at the special teams, Reilly has a relative CF% of -0.3 on the PP, which means he's slightly below average in terms of players who play on the Sens power play. On the PK he shines a little bit more with a relative CF% of 3.2. I'm not saying that Reilly is anything more than a 3rd pairing guy, because he definitely isn't, but he's objectively better than Matheson, and with his $1.5 million contract expiring at the end of this season I'd be willing to bet he gets a small raise, but still less money and term than the stupid contract the Panthers gave Matheson and the Pens actually gave up Hornqvist for somehow.
As for your little "45 more goals in 2 games" comment, yes the Sens are obviously a worse team than the Pens right now, you're just grasping at straws here, yet Reilly is still playing better than Matheson.