- Auston Matthews fell 10 spots to No. 18 in Daily Faceoff’s projection of the NHL’s top 30 players in 2030
- Carter Hutton called Matthews the one name on the board he questions after a regression that followed knee surgery
- Read below for the case that an Auston Matthews 2.0 is still coming
Auston Matthews is now the name people argue about when they look four years down the road.
Hosts Carter Hutton and Tyler Yaremchuk spent Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE reacting to Paul Pidutti’s projection of the league’s 30 best players in 2030. Matthews checked in 18th. Hutton went down that board and stopped on the Toronto captain.
“When I look at that board, for me, it’s the Auston Matthews one. I just think with the way that his game has regressed coming back after the knee injury, four years removed, that’s going to be the guy that I question.”
Hutton’s worry is not only about the player. He thinks the roster around Matthews will thin out too.
“I think he’s such a dynamic player that as age goes and you start to slow down, I worry that his team is not going to give him much around him to play and still be that offensive powerhouse we’ve seen in the past.”
Catch the full segment on Wednesday’s episode:
The drop is steep. Matthews sat eighth in the same exercise a year ago, and this summer he slid all the way to 18th while Macklin Celebrini took over the top spot from Connor McDavid.
Yaremchuk pushed back on the size of the fall and floated a version of Matthews that looks different but still scores.
“As he ages, I’m curious if there’s like this sort of Auston Matthews 2.0 that we eventually see. Maybe he’s not driving play as much, but he’s still racking up a ton of goals, and maybe he finds a way to stay healthier doing that.”
His point was pretty simple. A player 24 months removed from a 69-goal season does not usually fall off a cliff by 33.
Both sides can point to something from the last two years. Matthews managed 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games in 2025-26, easily the leanest full season of his career, and Toronto missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
He also passed Mats Sundin in January to become the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer, and he sits at 428 goals and 780 points in 689 games.
Pidutti’s board also says something about how the Leafs get back to relevance. Gavin McKenna, the 2026 first overall pick who has not played an NHL game yet, ranks 12th. That puts the 18-year-old six spots ahead of the 28-year-old he is about to line up beside.
Toronto tore down most of its roster this summer and hired new management and a new coaching staff. Getting Matthews back to 50 goals would make the rest of that project a lot easier.
