Report: MacKinnon makes huge declarations on Matthews and Kadri

It's not often you here these things from your rivals.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Report: MacKinnon makes huge declarations on Matthews and Kadri
Keystone Press

The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Colorado Avalanche tonight on the second half of a back-to-back that saw them take the first leg 7-4 against the Arizona Coyotes.

The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun spoke to Avs' star Nathan MacKinnon, who revealed some pretty interesting insight on two of the Leafs' top centres.

Despite the fact that MacKinnon is young at only 22 years old, it's interesting to see him say that a younger player in Auston Matthews is one of his favorite players to watch. 

His comment on Nazem Kadri also echoes a general sentiment around Leafs nation - the team's second centre has admittedly been struggling over the last while, but he's still on pace for approximately 50 points. It will be a step down from his 61 point season in 2016-17, but he was on pace to surpass that total for the first two months of the season. 

If he gets his production back up to the pace it was through the first two months of the season, he'll be on track for another stellar year. As a reliable two-way centre, getting that kind of production from him is extremely valuable - and he doesn't get the kind of recognition he deserves across the NHL.

That probably suits him just fine, as well as his team - but MacKinnon definitely has one thing right, he is very underrated.

Source: Twitter