With two goals in the Maple Leafs’ 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday night, Auston Matthews officially etched his name into the record books. Not only did he become the first Toronto player in franchise history to hit 60 goals in a season, but he also became the first American born skater to do so as well.
Coming into the 2021-22 campaign, many Leafs fans had already resigned themselves to the fact that it was likely only a matter of time before Matthews reached the 50 goal mark for a single season. Afterall, the talented 24 year old had come tantalizingly close the previous two years, scoring 47 in 2019-20, and racking up 41 goals in only 52 games last season.
So when Matthews finally hit the 50 goal plateau several weeks earlier, joining Rick Vaive, Dave Andreychuk, and Gary Leeman as the only Leafs to accomplish the feat, he was rightfully celebrated.
Prior to this year, 92 different NHL players had combined to score 50 goals in a single season on 187 separate occasions. Only 3 did so in a Maple Leafs sweater in the club’s 105 year history. A fact that is both shocking, but also speaks to the intense pressure placed on players in the hockey hotbed of Toronto.
Yet as quickly as the praise was heaped on the American sniper, the narrative shifted equally as fast to whether he could hit 60, 65 or even 70 goals on the season. Coming off a blistering March where he scored 13 goals in 12 games, imaginations ran wild in Leafs Nation.
Matthews began April equally as hot, registering 8 goals in Toronto’s first 5 games, but then hit a mild slump going goalless in 5 straight contests prior to Tuesday. Barring any surprises over the final handful of games across the league, Matthews is poised to capture his second consecutive Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer, and has likely solidified his spot on the final ballot for the Hart trophy as well.
With 106pts (60G, 46A) through 73 games, Matthews became the first skater in 10 years to score 60 goals, and tied Rick Vaive for most multi-goal games by a Leafs player in a season with 15.
He’s also just the 21st player in NHL history to record 60 goals in a season. A record made even more impressive when you consider that he’s only the 3rd skater since the year 2000 to reach the mark (Ovechkin & Stamkos were the others).
Only 6 seasons into his career, Matthews already sits in 9th place on the Leafs franchise goal scoring list. One more goal will put him in a tie with Wendel Clark for 8th. With 259 career goals to his name, he’s only 161 behind Mats Sundin for most all time, meaning he’s likely to set a new record prior to his 30th birthday.
The 2016 draft pick is signed through the 2023-24 season, which will make for an interesting storyline heading into his next contract negotiations.
Conservative estimates would put Matthews somewhere around the Dave Keon range of 365 career goals by the time his current deal is set to expire. And as more pieces come out, heralding him as the Leafs greatest goal scorer ever, what kind of a figure will that command in terms of AAV?
The key distinction for the Scottsdale, AZ native will be his UFA vs. RFA status, meaning not only will Toronto need to present the appropriate dollar figure, but they’ll also need to sell him on the team’s long term vision.
For now though, Leafs fans can focus on the positives. Their team is headed to the playoffs, they’re 7-2-1 in their last 10, and they’re witnessing arguably the best pure goal scorer in franchise history put together a career year.
The next question: Can they make it out of the first round?
Photo: Azadeh Kashani. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.