Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews on path to become NHL's next transcendent stars

The Toronto Maple Leafs will welcome the Edmonton Oilers for one of the most anticipated matchups of the young season Tuesday night. It feels weird to put a sentence like that together considering how bad those teams have been in recent years, but when the game features two of the most talented teenagers the league has seen in a decade, people take note.

Newmarket, Ontario's own Connor McDavid will captain the Oilers against Toronto's new adopted son, Auston Matthews and the Leafs. There are 12 games on the NHL schedule, but the one that is sure to draw the most buzz is this one. Even Wayne Gretzky decided to fly in to see the first meeting of these two stars in person.

It will be McDavid's first game against the team he grew up cheering for. He was injured for last season's visit to Toronto, so you better believe No. 97 will be fired up for this one.

McDavid and Matthews enter Tuesday night's game among the top 10 players in league scoring. The Oilers captain leads the way with 12 points in nine games, while Matthews is tied for ninth with 10 points in nine games. The two were also excellent together as linemates on Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey, perhaps with no better a moment than this goal against Sweden.

Now we get to see them on the ice together in a much different capacity.

Early indications show that these are probably the best two back-to-back first overall picks since Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby in 2004-05. Matthews and McDavid very well could be the players that take the torch from Ovechkin and Crosby as the league's standard bearers. It could be a little while before the veterans relinquish the crown as both are still among the league's elite, but these kids sure look poised to push them in the near future.

The big difference between Matthews and McDavid compared to Crosby and Ovechkin is that there won't be much of a chance for a head-to-head rivalry to flourish as they're in opposite conferences and will play each other a max of two times per season.

But they don't need to be head-to-head rivals anyway. It doesn't make either less compelling on their own and it doesn't change the fact that each can be a game-changing player for the league.

The fact is, the NHL can't have enough stars and it needs stars on both sides of the border. McDavid is on track to be one of the biggest stars to play for a Canadian team in the past decade-plus and Matthews may have a chance to get there, too. For as important as the seven Canadian franchises have been to the league, few of them have had that transcendent star recently. It's going to take time, but McDavid is building more name recognition in the United States, which is something that Crosby and Ovechkin continue to have over their younger counterparts as well-established brands.

Like McDavid, Matthews has a really good chance to be a Canadian team star with cross-border appeal. It should be easier for him since he is American, but he also became an overnight household name due to his four-goal debut. That gives him a bit of a head start. He still has to live up to expectations, but if we use his two pre-NHL seasons, his World Cup performance and the early production in his NHL career, all have indicated that he is a special talent.

Where each plays is one of the reasons they could become some of the league's biggest stars, but it's also why they may take longer to achieve the same level of stardom as a Crosby or Ovechkin.

One of the real misfortunes of the NHL's U.S. television rights package is the lack of Canadian teams that ever make it onto NBC Sports Network or NBC during the course of the regular season. There is no question that McDavid and Matthews are must-see players now, but you'll only see Matthews one time on the NHL's primary national rights holder for the rest of the season.

NBC will be airing the NHL's Centennial Classic between the Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1. The Oilers are not scheduled to appear on national TV in the U.S. even once, unless you have NHL Network or one of the league's out-of-market packages.

It's understandable that the networks want to boost ratings as much as possible. Right now, to do that, they need the most popular U.S.-based teams as hockey TV viewers tend to watch their favorite team and not much else. So that's why we don't get much of either of the league's top teenagers on TV south of the border.

In fairness, NBC Sports Network did take the unprecedented step to simulcast Matthews' home debut, which it was not previously scheduled to air. At the time, NBC Sports exec Sam Flood said the only reason it happened was because of Matthews. It was one of the first indications that the network sees certain players as able to sell broadcasts to viewers, which is a very good thing.

Still, McDavid might be the most talented player in the NHL right now and unless you're a devoted NHL fan and know where to look, you're not going to see him. This is one of the things that may be corrected over time as McDavid forces American sports fans to pay attention to the Oilers.

The best way to expedite U.S. visibility, on top of the marketing the league should already be doing for them, is to make the playoffs. With the start the Oilers have had so far, they've at least put themselves in position to threaten for the postseason, which gets them on national TV in the U.S. no matter what. It's going to take the Maple Leafs longer to get to that point.

There is always a challenge for the league to adequately promote its individuals. The players are usually reluctant and don't want the extra attention. That certainly appears to be true of McDavid and Matthews, who remain understated in their comments as they allow their flashy play do the talking for them. While the players have to get better at the off-ice element, their on-ice performance will always be the biggest part of their appeal.

That's especially true of the NHL's rising young stars. It's not just that McDavid and Matthews are supremely talented. It's that they're endlessly entertaining on the ice, too.

McDavid, without an ounce of hyperbole, might be the best skater the league as ever seen. It's a big part of his offensive game and he is one of those players where the speed even translates on TV. Watching him blow by defenders to score a goal or set one up is an experience.

Meanwhile, as we saw on the second goal Matthews scored during his four-goal debut, he has loads of creativity and the physical strength to be difficult to contain. At 19 years old, he is already figuring out ways to manufacture offense.

What each brings to the table makes them players that enhance the games they are playing in for anyone watching. They're special in that way.

The impact these two can have on important Canadian franchises, especially with Matthews in such a crucial big market, has a chance to elevate the game across Canada. That is hard to do as there's not a lot of room for improvement there. However, after a season in which all Canadian teams missed the playoffs and Canadian TV ratings declined across the board, the timing on the arrival of these two is just about perfect.

If they can do that in Canada, while also giving the NHL two more teams that American television audiences would have an interest in, their impact on the league could be pretty gigantic.

When Crosby and Ovechkin arrived, they came at a time where the NHL was in pretty bad shape. Coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, the league needed some heroes. They were the right players at the right time. The league has grown exponentially since, making the Crosby-Ovechkin impact difficult to match. But as all organizations should, the NHL is always looking to be better. McDavid and Matthews, along with a cast of many more young players making an early impact throughout the league, have a chance to take things to another level. That is why early-season events like Tuesday night's game between the budding young stars are to be savored.