Considering all the Matthews noise and crazy takes from Leafs fans lately, I was wondering how non-Leafs fans viewed Matthews as a player to build a team around at this point in his career, compared to other stars.

I saw a comment like: “If there was no salary cap, I’d still take at least 10 guys over Matthews to build a team around.”

I am curious to measure the temperature of this take from less-biased fans. I made a quick list below of who I think are top players/potential at their positions (Apologies if I excluded anyone). If you were to build a team around 1 player, salary/cap is not a factor, where would Matthews rank on your power rankings?

Forwards: McDavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, M. Tkachuk, Kucherov, Pasta, Crosby, Bedard

Defense: Makar, Fox, Dahlin, Heiskanen, Karlsson

Goalies: Sorokin, Vasi, Igor Shesty