Peers, friends, rivals: Auston Matthews on a growing bond with Connor McDavid

Before he became the first player in nearly 30 years to score 69 goals in a season.

Before he won an MVP and became the new face of the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Before he became the first player in NHL history to bury four goals in his NHL debut.

Before he won the Calder Trophy with a 40-goal rookie season.

Before he had even played a single game for, or even practiced with, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Before he did any of that, Auston Matthews had a linemate named Connor McDavid.

Advertisement Matthews, an American who was born in California and raised in Arizona, and McDavid, a Canadian who was born and raised in the Toronto suburbs, were members of Team North America, the so-called young guns squad of 23-and-under players at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Though that team would also feature future Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck and another future MVP in Nathan MacKinnon, it was the connection between Matthews and McDavid that proved most intriguing.

The two most recent No.

1 picks (2015 and 2016), the two shiniest beacons of hope for two struggling Canadian franchises, playing not just on the same team but on the same line.

It was, to say the least, exciting and remains arguably the most memorable part of the tournament.

The first official goal that Matthews scored at what was then known as the Air Canada Centre was set up by McDavid.

Matthews had celebrated his 19th birthday two days earlier.

McDavid was still 19 himself.

More than eight years later and Matthews and McDavid are icons of the NHL and of hockey, the Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby of their generation, captains of their NHL teams and both wearing letters for Team USA and Team Canada, respectively, at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

They have become friends, peers and rivals.

A relationship hatched with Team North America has only grown through All-Star games theyve both attended over the years and time spent together outside of the NHL world.

Before the 2020 postseason, while the league was on pause for the pandemic, McDavid spent about three weeks in Arizona with Matthews where the two skated, golfed, trained and played tennis together.

They were in Germany this past summer, have shared the same agent, Judd Moldaver, since 2023 and shot a series of McDonalds commercials over a long couple of days together at York University in Toronto last offseason in a throwback to the Wayne Gretzky-Mats Sundin ads of an earlier era .

Advertisement I think our relationship has grown a lot, Matthews told The Athletic before he faced McDavid with the Leafs in Edmonton earlier this month.

I definitely think its evolved and I think theres a mutual respect there for one another and appreciation.

I know for myself, like spending time with him, I always find hockey for the most part, we talk about a lot of stuff but I just find getting his perspective on different things is pretty cool.

You learn a lot just (by) bouncing things off of each other.

He is who he is because of the work ethic that he puts in and hes obviously a special talent, with the consistency and everything like that.

I just find anytime (I) spend time with him Im always learning different things.

What exactly has Matthews learned from McDavid? Little things, he said.

We talk about the game a lot and maybe how he sees it, Matthews said.

Obviously his skill set, nobody really has that kind of skill set.

Just hearing how he thinks the game or maybe how he likes whatever where his wingers are on the breakout, different stuff like that.

Its always interesting to hear his perspective on different things.

Its been a growing relationship, for sure, McDavid said.

McDavid took the more traditional route to the NHL.

He was the forever-hyped next one from Richmond Hill, Ont.

who starred for the OHLs Erie Otters and inspired the most desperate tank job in recent NHL history.

With the fourth-worst record in the NHL during the 2014-15 season, the Leafs emerged with the best odds to win the lottery before the final ball was selected.

In some alternate world, its McDavid playing for the Leafs and Matthews playing elsewhere.

Instead it was the Oilers who landed the pick, and McDavid, and a year later it was the Leafs who came up with their own first overall pick.

Advertisement They took Matthews, a kid from the desert who became a hockey machine rooting for the Phoenix Coyotes and who went all the way to Switzerland for his draft year.

Both have not just met the hype with which they entered the league but somehow even exceeded it.

In the midst of his 10th season, McDavid has already won five Art Ross Trophies as the leagues top scorer, three Hart Trophies as league MVP, one Rocket Richard Trophy as the leagues top goal scorer, and a Conn Smythe for his role in leading the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final last spring.

Matthews three Rocket wins are the most by any NHLer not named Ovechkin.

Runner-up to McDavid for MVP in 2021, Matthews briefly wrestled best-player-on-the-planet status away from his pal during the 2021-22 season when he scored 60 goals in only 73 games and took home the first Hart Trophy by a Leaf since 1955.

McDavid finished second.

He took the crown back the following season, one-upping Matthews with 64 goals and the first 153-point season since Mario Lemieux nearly 30 years earlier.

Matthews response to that: A 69-goal season and third-place finish for the Selke Trophy as the leagues top defensive forward which still wasnt enough to top McDavid, who finished third, in MVP voting.

(Matthews ranked fourth.) Matthews historic scoring he will soon become the all-time leading goal scorer for McDavids hometown team positions him neatly as this generations Ovechkin.

The consensus best player in the world, McDavid has taken the place of Crosby.

Both continue to search for the Stanley Cups that their predecessors both captured.

More matchups on the international stage, and perhaps even a Stanley Cup Final one day, will only stoke their on-ice rivalry.

Though they may look different Matthews, the more fashion-forward of the two and play differently for that matter, the two are more alike than you would think, said Moldaver, their agent and an executive vice president of Wasserman Hockey.

Their shared love of the game, their hunger to win, their competitiveness, their hockey IQ, their commitment to the craft.

Advertisement Theyre both obsessed with being the best versions of themselves, Moldaver said.

Does their respective positions in the game as top players, captains, icons make Matthews, now 27, feel a special kinship with McDavid, who turned 28 last month? Very few, if any, players, one would imagine, could understand the pressure and expectations that come with all of that.

There was something unique about it, Matthews agreed.

Were pretty respected players in the game and obviously weve had to earn that, Matthews said.

Hes had it a little bit differently, just from a young age.

Its not really something we talk about.

Its just something that comes maybe with the territory.

I know for him, just seeing how he handles stuff, like the attention and just everything that comes with who he is I know for myself, and my own situation, its the same and similar in a lot of regards.

All the more so now that Matthews has joined McDavid as the captain of his own team in Toronto.

Ive got a lot of respect for him, just the way he handles himself and handles his business and the consistency that he plays with and how much he cares about the game and (how hes) just always looking to get better, said Matthews.

I try to obviously be my own version of that and do things like that as well.

But when you get a different perspective or different approach from a player like him, too, it makes you appreciate it a little bit more and maybe gives you different ideas and different insight.

Was there a competitive dynamic to his relationship with McDavid? Did Matthews see him as a foil to be overtaken? A rabid tennis fan, does Matthews view McDavid in the same way that Novak Djokovic might have once looked at Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer? It wasnt exactly like that, Matthews said.

While he and McDavid were both competitive, hockey is a team sport.

And were in different divisions, he said.

We only see each other twice a year.

But I think theres the competitive aspect that goes into it we both hate losing and want to be the best that we can be out there on a nightly basis and I respect that.

(Top photo: Kevin Sousa / USA Today).

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