Auston Matthews had the worst season of his NHL career in 2025-26, and his NHL 27 rating is paying for it.
With the new game coming out in less than a month, EA Sports revealed the ten highest-rated forwards at each position on Monday, and Matthews was notably not included in the center ranks.
The game’s first-ever 99, Connor McDavid, was of course atop the list, with Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Macklin Celebrini, Aleksander Barkov, and Jack Eichel lining up as the top seven. Those all made sense, though what did come as a surprise was seeing Jack Hughes, Nick Suzuki, and Mark Scheifele claim the eight through 10 slots ahead of Matthews.
He wound up being a 92 overall, the 11th-highest-rated center in the game.
The 28-year-old tallied 53 points (27 goals, 26 assists) in 60 games played last season, which was the lowest goal and point totals of his 10-year career to date. He has two years left on the four-year, $53 million contract extension he signed with the Maple Leafs back in 2023.
While Matthews’ past few seasons have been underwhelming in terms of production and the eye test, dropping him out of the top 10 centers is quite bold. He’s not that far removed from a 69-goal, 107-point campaign, and the three-time Rocket Richard winner and 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner remains squarely in his prime.
Whether he would use this kind of slight as motivation heading into 2026-27 is unknown, but the possibility of Matthews with a chip on his shoulder, along with the additions of Gavin McKenna and Darren Raddysh helping him out, sets up for a potential big bounce-back season. If not, then it becomes fair to say that this is the new norm for Toronto’s captain.
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