SIMMONS SAYS: Are the Leafs wasting the best years of Auston Matthews and William Nylander?

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How many teams in the NHL have a better 1-2 offensive punch than the Maple Leafs have with Auston Matthews and William Nylander?

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Obviously, the Edmonton Oilers are in a class by themselves with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. But after that, who’s next?

Maybe Vegas with Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner or Mark Stone? Maybe Kirill Kaprizov with Matt Boldy in Minnesota? Maybe Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas in Colorado?

Matthews and Nylander are almost 30 points behind McDavid and Draisaitl in scoring, but ahead of just about everyone else, pairing-wise, in hockey. And this is their 11th season as teammates, although rarely as linemates over time.

The strange part of all this: There is no assurance that having two explosive offensive players on the same team will get the Maple Leafs into the playoffs come April. This is a tough road in a stacked division for a Leafs team with so many other challenges.

Eleven years together with Matthews and Nylander, with Marner here for nine seasons, John Tavares here for the past nine, and with newcomers Kirill Marchenko, Jack Roslovic and No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna here now, and yet to date there is nothing much to show for all that glitter.

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Not a playoff run to remember. McDavid and Draisaitl have twice played for the Stanley Cup. Vegas won one with Eichel and Stone, and lost one with Marner. Colorado won with MacKinnon and may win again some year. It takes 16 playoff wins to carry the Stanley Cup. The most the Leafs have had in the Matthews-Nylander era is seven. Not even halfway there. An era of both all-time Toronto talent and disappointment.

THIS AND THAT

Joel Quenneville may be one of the most fortunate coaches in NHL history. He had Chris Pronger at 22 years of age in St. Louis. He had Patrick Kane at 19 and Jonathan Toews at 20 in Chicago. He had Sasha Barkov at 23 in Florida. In Anaheim, he now has Leo Carlsson at 21, Cutter Gauthier at 22 and Beckett Sennecke at 20. Combined, they have 65 points in the Ducks’ first 17 games of this season. As long-time coach Jim Fassel once told me, show me a great NFL coach and I’ll show you a great quarterback … Before Brad Treliving hired Craig Berube to coach the Leafs, he spoke to Quenneville about the job. Quickly, Treliving found out that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, his bosses, wanted nothing to do with Quenneville. Thus ended the conversations … The Hall of Fame Class of 2026 has two sure things in Patrice Bergeron and Carey Price and two great debates in favour of Keith Tkachuk and Pekka Rinne. Once in, though, it doesn’t matter how you got there. You’re a Hall of Famer for life … The Detroit Red Wings confuse me. They have an interim general manager in Shawn Horcoff, to whom they have given the chore of trading away Dylan Larkin. But if the Red Wings aren’t comfortable enough to name Horcoff GM, why are they comfortable enough to allow him to deal one of their greatest assets? Either he can do the job or he can’t … If Roslovic had played this well for the Oilers, Hurricanes, Rangers or Blue Jackets the past three seasons, he still would be in Edmonton, Carolina, New York or Columbus. Roslovic has scored more than 40 points only twice in his career. He’s on pace for more than 80 points with the Leafs this season … Matthew Knies is playing like he’s heartbroken since being traded by the Leafs. Whatever the Blue Jackets expected from Knies, they’re not getting to date.

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HEAR AND THERE

The late player agent Don Baizley would cringe listening to Nikita Kucherov’s agent, Dan Milstein, doing the talk show and online circuit, telling the tale of his poorly mistreated MVP. Baizley kept all his business to himself. At a time, not unlike this one, when agents love to share their stories with eager insiders, Baizley told you next to nothing and yet had remarkable relationships with his players, the hockey establishment and the press … Among Baizley’s clients: Joe Sakic, Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Peter Forsberg, Jari Kurri — all of them now in the Hall of Fame … I was thinking about this when discussing Curtis Joseph’s possible Hall of Fame candidacy: Who are the best Leafs goaltenders post-expansion? My list goes 1. Ed Belfour; 2. Joseph; 3. Mike Palmateer; 4. Felix Potvin … The top three from the Montreal Canadiens: Hall of Famers, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden and now Price … When Mike Babcock coached the Maple Leafs, he had this number he liked to keep. He wanted the team to get six points for every five games they played. That would get his Oilers 101 points on the season. Currently, Edmonton is on pace for 123 … Four of the Raptors’ five wins have come against teams with a combined record of 5-28 in the early NBA season. The Raps’ record against teams ahead of them in the standings: 0-3 … It’s early November and it seems almost obvious that Luka Doncic will be the MVP of the NBA, McDavid in the NHL.

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SCENE AND HEARD

Cito Gaston was not among the eight candidates which the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame will consider for induction next month. He was on the ballot three years ago. He and Davey Johnson both got dropped in favour of Bruce Bochy (a sure-thing), Dusty Baker and Joe Maddon. Combined, Baker and Maddon have won the same number of World Series as Gaston. Lou Piniella, who came up one vote short in 2023 and is back on the ballot, also is a one-time World Series winner as a manager. Even into his 80s, Gaston still doesn’t get the respect from the baseball community for his feat of winning back-to-back World Series titles. Sparky Anderson, Joe Torre and Dick Williams, all back-to-back winners as managers, are all in the Hall. Baker, who might get elected this time — the winners are announced in early December — told me a few summers back that he believes Gaston should be there … If he wasn’t embarrassing enough already, Anthony Santander certainly is now … David Bell, from the famous baseball family, has left the Blue Jays front office because he wants to get back in the game in uniform — managing, coaching, something on the field … My expectations of the Blue Jays pre-lockout: They will spend as much as they can on free agency and pretend there won’t be a salary cap. They may not be much on player development but they sure know how to spend Edward Rogers’ money … What do the Jays need most for next season? Outfielders and designated hitters who can slug and depth-style starting pitchers … Jays manager John Schneider has taken some online heat for his apparent support of Donald Trump. Turns out, it was John Schneider, just not the manager. It was the actor and director, best known for his days on The Dukes of Hazzard.

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AND ANOTHER THING

I hate that I’m writing this before I know who is playing in the Grey Cup, but I suspect it will be the Montreal Alouettes against the Edmonton Elks next Sunday… The CFL is a better place when Edmonton is selling tickets, lots of tickets … Two old-timers who deserve a second or third look at NHL Hall-of-Fame candidacy. Rick Middleton, the human highlight film, and Peter Mahovlich, who once scored 117 points for a great Montreal Canadiens team … This is a weird NFL season. There may not be one great team in the league. Which begs the question: Will there ever be a better opportunity than right here, right now, for the Buffalo Bills? … The jerseys being worn by Team Canada and Team USA at the world women’s hockey championship look like house league jerseys. I once played for Boat Tops by Omar. We were atom champions. Our jerseys were nicer than those being forced on Canada and the U.S., by international marketing deals … This is the 25th world championship for women. Canada or the U.S., have won every year. Canada won the first eight titles. The Americans are 5-3 in the past eight. After all these years, women’s hockey still needs a third country to challenge the Big Two … Heard this said when the Maple Leafs played Utah on Tuesday night: It’s an ‘Original 33’ game … You can make a list of about 10 dumb things that the Argos did to themselves in losing a home playoff game to Winnipeg last weekend. Losing is understandable. Beating yourself that badly hurts … Never been much of a soccer guy, but I do admire greatness: So I can tell my friends, my kids, that I got to see the great Cristiano Ronaldo play in Toronto just before he retired from international duty … What a turnout for Chris Cuthbert’s Hall of Fame party Friday night. It was a who’s-who of Canadian broadcasting: Dave Hodge. Brian Williams. Ron MacLean. James Duthie. And all of the behind-the-scenes bigwigs were there, as well. I wanted to ask for autographs … Love the story Cuthbert’s on-air partner, Craig Simpson, told about his own playing career: “I went to Edmonton and got to play six years with Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson, both of them Hall of Famers. Then I went into broadcasting and got to work with Jim Hughson, a Hall of Famer, and now with Cuthbert. My two play-by-play men, both Hall of Famers. How lucky have I been?” … There are no sure-thing NHL Hall of Famers slated for induction in 2027, so I’m betting that next year Rod Brind’Amour gets elected … Happy birthday to Buck Martinez (78), Jesse Marsch (53), Keith Jones (58), Giancarlo Stanton (37), Jim Kaat (88), Sonny Gray (37), Darwin Barney (41), Chris Jericho (56) and Joni Mitchell (83) … And hey, whatever became of Daunte Culpepper?

Steve Simmons is Canada’s longest-standing sports columnist

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