Not this again! Also, nice argument. Draisaitl is much more than that, but there is no need to argue about it. Oilers fans will be biased, leaf fans will be biased. Other fans that hate that team will be biased…. They are both great, and both top 6 center men in the NHL. Every team would love to have one of them! By top 6, I mean on a scale of 1-10….

Drai is a PP queen and that's it

matthews is better

To me it’s a no brainer, but it’s solely due to contract reasons. Draisaitl is $3.1M cheaper and has an extra year on his contract.

That makes him about 2 (mid-late) first round picks more valuable than Matthews SUPPOSING they both walk at the end of their deals (which is unlikely, but also impossible to predict at this stage)

In terms of goal scoring, Matthews is better no question: They both have the same number of goals (199) but Matthews got there in 334 games whereas Draisatl needed 478 games to get there.

Both of these players do have players that pad their numbers a little bit because there's no question that being with McDavid and Marner allows Matthews and Draisatl to score more goals.

In terms of contract, Draisatl is $3 million less than McDavid and lasts for more years so if you wanted to talk about value for contract, it would definitely be Draisatl.

But in terms of better player, I give my vote to Matthews > Draisatl.

Draisaitl imo

Matthews could easily pass him tho with a incredible season

It’s close. I’m bias towards Leon but Mathews does have a better defensive awareness not that Leon is bad but I’d give the edge to Mathews there. Shooting honestly stats might lean towards Mathews but I think it’s a lot closer than some would suggest. Passing easily Leon I’m not sure anyone in the league can make back hand saucer passes like him lands it flat every time almost never see anyone bobble the puck from him. I’d call it a tie

Matthews is the better goal scorer (probably the best of his generation) and has better defensive positioning. Drai has better passing, is better in the faceoff circle, and maybe slightly better puck protection, as well as being one of the most effective players on the power play in today's NHL. Both are elite, both are a joy to watch. Lets just appreciate them for what they are instead of spending all this time arguing over who is better

Matthews and it's not even close

Matthews but much closer than some would have you believe.

Draisaitl is a top 5 c in the league

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20182019&thruseason=20202021&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=std&rate=n&team=ALL&pos=C&loc=B&toi=200&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

Draisaitl scores, sets people up, penalty kills, power plays he's good at everything. He puts up as many goals as Mathews and more assists how is mathews better? Mathews has a better wrist shot but Draisaitl is Ovechkin like on the one timer.

Draisaitl took much longer to develop and more games but that is not a knock on the player he is today.

Both are phenomenal players, let's get that out of the way first. The quick answer for me is Matthews. I have McDavid, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Matthews and Draisaitl as the five best players in hockey in that order as well. Comparing the both players, as an offensive force, Draisaitl is more complete, as he can both score and assist at an extremely high rate. Matthews currently is the best goalscorer in the league. He has the vision and creativity to make plays, but he is going to shoot every time before passing with that shot he posses. I think it becomes interesting when you compare the two at 5v5. Matthews currently averages 64 ESP per season (82 games) while Draisaitl averages 66 ESP per season (82 games). The big difference is the goals at even strength. Matthews pace for ESG is 38 per season while Draisaitl's pace is 24 ESG per season. Quite a substantial difference. I understand that power play is major part of the game, and I think there is something to say for how well Draisaitl performs on the man advantage, but ultimately, goals wins games, and Matthews is a better goalscorer that produces pretty much exactly the same number of points at even strength since he entered the league. Matthews is also a MUCH better two-way player than Draisaitl. This is why I have Matthews > Draisaitl.

Bonus for people who say Matthews only can score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N__YA3G0Hfg

Draisaitl drives the play even strength. Edmonton as a team in general was very reliant on the powerplay for the last 2 years because they only had about 2 good wingers on the whole team and the rest 4th line players. With good wingers there wont be any more arguments. Contrary to popular belief mcdavid and Draisaitl dont play on the same line except powerplay and when the team really needs a goal.

it's almost as if he doesn't drive his own offense

Draisaitl could have easily had 90 ESP if he had a RW that could hit the net and a LW that wasn't a swiss league level player.

That is funny with McDavid being the player he spends the most TOI with after Yamamoto lol.

TOI with Draisaitl at 5v5 last season:
Yamamoto: 565 min.
McDavid: 340 min.
Kahun: 320 min.

Imagine what Matthews could do playing 340 minutes with McDavid lol.

Their goal-scoring ability is closer than you think. Over the past 3 years, Matthews has barely more goals than Draisaitl, 125 to 124. They are #1 and #2 in the NHL for goals. Matthews played 19 fewer games (190 vs 209) which makes his scoring more impressive, but he's also taken far more shots (763 vs 617) resulting in a much lower shooting percentage (16.4 vs 20.1). It would appear, based on shooting percentage, that Draisaitl is actually the more skilled shooter, but Matthews scores more because of greater shot volume. Which is interesting, because Draisaitl's on-ice shot numbers are higher (2775 vs 2488) which indicates that he passes much more. Which leads us into the conversation about assists...

Also over the past 3 years, Draisaitl has nearly TWICE as many assists as Matthews does, 175 to 94. That makes him #2 in the NHL while Matthews is way down at #56, tied with offensive dynamo (not) Phillip Danault. In this department the two simply aren't close: Draisaitl has far, far better vision and passing ability.


Draisaitl's greater offensive ability combined with his cheaper contract makes this a no-brainer for me. You can argue defensive ability, but that doesn't appear true anymore anyhow. With both players head-to-head in the same division last season and both teams performing similarily, Draisaitl had better on-ice impacts at 5v5 both offensively (+1.66 vs +1.24 GF/60 rel) and defensively (-0.55 vs -0.21 GA/60 rel) for a much greater overall impact (+20.54 vs +12.03 GF% rel). And before you blame that on McDavid, know that they only played together 37.7% of the time at 5v5, much less than Matthews with Marner (87.3%) did.

I'm guessing marner is a really bad player and mathews has to bounce his passes to himself off his stick?

Far from it. He is the 2nd best two-way winger in the league after Marchand. He is top 8 in assists since he entered the league only 6 behind number 4 on that list which means he very likely could jump up and be 4th at the end of the season. Marner however, is not on McDavid's level.

at least leaf fans have stopped trying to compare mcdavid and matthews!!!
Much better comparison here.
They are very close for everyone saying Dri gets a bump from mcdavid of course he does. if your a coach and you dont play your best 2 players together your a fool. look at PITs crosby malkin cup years play about 33-35% of time together. CHI Toews Kane about the same. Bos keeps Bergeron Pasta and Marchand together thats how you get the most out of your allstar talent. so that is a weak argument against DRi
If you want you could Say the Matthews numbers get a bump because they have had a way deeper team he got to play with hyman and marner all year both have shown that his points per 60 increase while playing with....

I would give the edge to Dri at this point he. he still scores 40-50 goals a year which probably comes in even or just shy of matthews but when in come to play making Dri is vastly superior to matthews.

I think he was being sarcastic...

Blake Comeau and it isn’t even close.

Thanks for clearing that up.