Major new development regarding Auston Matthews following his injury

Auston Matthews just gave Toronto Maple Leafs fans a number that backs up what they already believed.

A report from PuckLineNews this week put hard digits on his defensive game, and it's a big one.

Matthews leads every forward in the league in blocked shots over the past five seasons with 417.

That puts him ahead of Elias Pettersson at 385, Alex Tuch at 380, Alexander Wennberg at 355 and Anze Kopitar at 351.

He's also second among forwards in takeaways over that stretch with 304, per the same report.

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That's not what you'd expect from a guy who still put up 53 points in 60 games this past season, including 27 goals and three game-winning tallies.

Matthews closed out the year with six points over his final 10 games, but a minus-8 rating in that stretch showed how much the Leafs were bleeding around him.

Toronto finished 32-36-14 for 78 points, ranked 28th overall in the league, and closed on a seven-game losing streak that ended with a loss at Ottawa.

A new coach walks into a two-way problem he didn't create

Jim Hiller takes over behind the Leafs' bench this offseason, and he inherits a center who blocks shots like a defenseman and still nearly hits a point per game.

That's a strange gift and a strange burden at the same time.

Do you build a system around a $13.25 million center who does everything, or do you finally surround him with players who can carry some of that load themselves?

Because right now, Matthews is doing the dirty work of a bottom-six grinder and the offensive work of a franchise center, and Toronto still finished with a minus-4 rating on his stat line.

With numbers like these, it's easy to understand why he keeps getting injured. The Maple Leafs need to address this right away, especially now that he's coming off a major injury.

Voters tend to reward penalty-kill specialists and shutdown wingers, not point producers who also throw their body in front of pucks. Matthews has both.