Underrated & Over-Hated: Distaste for Auston Matthews is Unwarranted

In a market filled with media scrutiny and a team atop the league’s most hated by other fanbases, it’s often easy for players to become scapegoats for their own fans and the bête noire for other fanbases around the league. Recently that’s been the case for Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews.

A player highly-touted coming into the NHL, Matthews has solidified his place with a knack for goal scoring and – more recently – playing a strong 200-foot game. Still, he’s there have been some critical of his lack of physicality, his playoff production and even some who questioned his leadership during Team U.S.A’s gold medal Olympic run.

But at which point can the critics step back and look at what he has done within the game?

After all, given the injuries he’s had to deal with over the span of his career, the departure of arguably a top-10 playmaker in the game and the constant scrutiny of the Toronto media and outside markets, Matthews has proven his worth as one of the best goal scorers in today’s game.

In fact, for those who’ve called the Maple Leafs’ star overrated during his time, an argument based solely on the numbers could be made for the exact opposite – that Matthews is an underrated superstar in this generation of the NHL.

Matthews’ Natural Gift of Goal Scoring

For starters, Matthews’ 10-year goal scoring rate is much higher than most. In fact, few players in the history of the league have scored at the same clip as Matthews over their respective careers. In his first 10 seasons in the NHL, Matthews has lit the lamp 428 times during the regular season, accumulating 780 points over that 689-game span.

Over that time, Matthews has the most even-strength goals in the NHL with 317. The next closest is Connor McDavid with 287. The Maple Leafs’ star also ranks first during that time with 428 total goals during the regular season. Even with a so-called down year last season – in which he still scored 27 goals in 60 games – Matthews has been arguably the best goal scorer over the last decade.

The fact that Matthews has been able to continue this trend at even strength is even more impressive given the opposing lines he is up against on a consistent basis and the level of competition. Add to that the defensive assignments he’s been handed and it makes it that much more impressive the kind of consistency we’ve seen from him offensively.

Having scored 60 goals twice in those 10 seasons, the expectation has climbed in terms of what fans want out of him. All of a sudden, a 27-goal season isn’t enough, even with the team floundering the way it did last season. The expectation of 40-plus goals has become normalized. The intricacies of his game have been ignored.

Matthews Has Mastered the 200-Foot Game

Even with the goal scoring at an elite level, Matthews has still been able to build his defensive reliability. Sure, the physicality is still lacking to an extent – especially for a player of his size. But, again, numbers dictate that he’s played extremely well away from the puck and in his own end.

Over the past five seasons, Matthews ranks first in the NHL amongst forwards in blocked shots with 417 and second in takeaways with 304. Now, say what you want about these numbers, but the intangibles are important for two particular seasons. One, these are defensive keys that help teams win games. And two, it shows a willingness to do some of the tough things on the defensive side of the puck – leading by example.

Of course, this is not to argue that he’s the best defensive star in the league. Arguments can be made for players like Nathan MacKinnon or Sidney Crosby for that matter, but given his defensive numbers, it becomes tougher to argue against his 200-foot reliability. All of this while he’s scoring on the other end as well.

Matthews Still Overshadowed By Maple Leafs’ Playoff Woes

Where most critics take the argument against Matthews as an NHL superstar is the team – or as they call it, his team – and their inability to get it done when it counts the most. The 2025-26 season was the first time that the Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs since Matthews entered the league in 2015-16.

Sure, the argument can be made that, as a whole, the team hasn’t accomplished much come playoff time. Two series wins over that time will come with some criticisms. At the forefront of those criticisms was the team’s Core Four – Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.

Still, an individual player can’t solely dictate the successes of a team. Even with some inconsistencies in his playoff runs, Matthews still has 26 goals and 59 points in 68 postseason games. Ultimately his individual successes need to be separated from the poor performances the team have put forth during the playoffs.

For fans of the Maple Leafs, they’ve grown accustomed to a player who can put up 40 to 50 goals in a season. So much so that a 27-goal season was tagged as mediocrity. For those outside of the team’s fanbase the distaste comes more from the logo he wears rather than the game he plays. After all, over the past decade, Matthews is the best goal scorer in the NHL.

Are there criticisms to be made? Sure. But denying his title as an NHL superstar simply won’t cut it with the number there to back it up.