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Alternate History: Auston Matthews in College Hockey

Auston Matthews just signed a monster extension which will make him the second-highest paid player in the NHL behind only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. Matthews is a franchise center, three-time all-star and the catalyst for the renaissance that the Toronto Maple Leafs are experiencing. At 21 years of age, he’s already one of the best, most exciting players in the game. I think he’s got the best release of all the great shooters in the league and he finds ways to get into scoring areas like only a few players can do. We’ve only seen the tip of the ice berg when it comes to what kind of player this guy can be.

Matthews famously skipped out on not only college hockey, but major junior hockey as well. He spent his draft year playing for Zurich in the Swiss A-League. He tallied 46 goals in 36 games in a professional league as an 18 year-old.

What would it have been like if he’d played in college? The NCAA features some great players but the all-around skill just doesn’t compare to European leagues that feature numerous former NHLers, some of which have aspirations of returning to the NHL at some point.

The Choices

Matthews had a list of teams he was interested in before he announced he would not be playing college hockey. The teams are as follows; Michigan, North Dakota, Boston University, Boston College, Denver and Wisconsin. There’s no way of telling which program he would have chosen. Each school has a track record of being successful as well as putting guys in the pros. With the talent Matthews has, it’s a safe bet that he would have gone on to NHL stardom anyways so he probably wasn’t worried about his draft stock falling because he chose one school or another.

Hypothetical

Matthews was a star for the US National Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It’s entirely possible that he would have joined the elite talent playing there. The 2015-16 Michigan squad featured Zach Werenski, Kyle Conner, Tyler Motte and JT Compher among some other really talented players.

Michigan hovered around the top-ten all year before eventually losing to North Dakota in the NCAA tournament. Could Matthews have gotten them over the hump and led them to a national title? I think so.

Matthews would have been absolutely dominant at the collegiate level. Jim Montgomery (current Dallas Stars head coach) is probably the most dominant player in college hockey history. I don’t think Matthews would have matched his absurd point totals, but he would have scored at a crazy rate.

He would have earned all the accolades, Big Ten player of the year, All-American, hell he would have had a great shot at the Hobey Baker.

Him playing college hockey would have been huge for the sport. Jack Hughes might have elected to play college hockey for one season. There might have been a domino effect that brought in a wave of one-and-done players to college hockey.

As a Leafs fan I’m certainly fine with how things turned out. Auston Matthews is a Toronto Maple Leaf and that may be so for his whole career. But I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t have been pretty cool to see him play college hockey for just one season.

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