Make no mistake about it, although the twosome of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner might not be in all Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans good books these days after an early playoff exit, they are appreciated around the NHL. on Tuesday, the Maple Leafs’ star forwards raked in some appreciation from the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Matthews was named to the second National Hockey League all-star team and Marner did even better, being named to the first National Hockey League all-star team. Although the results of the voting was released this week, it was completed at the end of the regular season.
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Matthews Second All-Star Team Member
Regardless of the great season Matthews had, he was up against it at the center position. That “it” was the Edmonton Oilers’ great Connor McDavid, who was almost unstoppable during the regular season. McDavid is simply McDavid, and deserves to be named the number one center in the NHL. Matthews came in second in voting with 253 points. McDavid almost doubled Matthews with 498 points.
So, no fault in being named to the second All-Star team. Matthews is great, but he’s not yet to the place where he’s knocking McDavid off his thrown as the king of NHL’s centers. Matthews scored more goals than anyone else, with 41 and finished with 66 points in the 52 games he played. By contrast, McDavid had 105 points (almost a-point-a-game more).
Being named an all-star wasn’t Matthews only accolade. He finished second in the Hart Trophy race, behind only McDavid who was the unanimous winner scoring first-place votes on all 100 ballots. Matthews had 69 of the second-place votes. Marner received one fifth-place vote for the Hart Trophy.
Mitch Marner Named to First All-Star Team
Mitch Marner was named to the first All-Star team. It was his first all-star election during in his career. The Maple Leafs young right-winger came out ahead of the Colorado Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen. Marner had 20 goals and 47 assists (for 67 points) in 55 games. That put him in fourth place overall in NHL scoring.
The point count was Marner, with 306 points, and Rantanen, with 297 points.
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