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win a bronze medal, and at the IIHF 2016 World Championship, where he led the U.S. He played for the United States at the 2016 IIHF Junior World Championship, where he tied for the tournament lead with seven goals and helped the U.S.

Playing in National League A, the top Swiss pro league, the 18-year-old center had 24 goals (fourth in the league) and 46 points (10th) in 36 games with Zurich in 2015-16. The performance was a springboard not to major junior or college hockey, but to a one-and-done NHL prep season in Switzerland. With USA Hockey's National Team Development Program in 2014-15, Matthews set United States Under-18 team records for a single season with 55 goals and 117 points (surpassing Kane's 52 goals and 102 points in 2005-06). Matthews was an all-around athlete who chose to focus on hockey as an adolescent, and he excelled at every level of the game on his unique path to the NHL. While growing up, he idolized players such Shane Doan and Daniel Briere, members of the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, a franchise that relocated in 1996 from Winnipeg. 1 since the Chicago Blackhawks took Patrick Kane with the first pick in the 2007 NHL Draft. Matthews was the first United States-born player to be chosen No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft - and a potential franchise player for the Toronto Maple Leafs after scoring 158 goals before his 23rd birthday? Who would have thought a decade or so ago that a player raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, would be the No. Matthews is the NHL's Sun Belt growth come to spectacular life.