Auston Matthews making Wendel Clark's 1993-94 season look like child's play
For Auston Matthews, scoring goals is not even his second nature. It's very much primary. Scoring goals is what Matthews does and since it's the toughest thing in the NHL to do, it's no wonder why he's widely considered a top-5 player in the National Hockey League, right up there with Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl and Cale Makar.
Matthews, as it stands, has 4 years remaining with the organization after his current contract expires next summer, and you don't have to be a mathematics whiz to take a lot at the stat lines and the Leafs history books to understand that he's very likely going to not only break some longstanding Maple Leafs records in the coming years, but shatter them.
Matthews scored his 20th and 21st goals of the season last night in New York, which is insane, considering the fact that the Leafs are only 26 games into the season. To put how special this is into perspective, the last Leaf to score 20 goals in his first 26 games was Wendel Clark, and he did so back in 1993-94. Imagine that - Matthews has done something that we haven't seen in Toronto in 30 years.
The 1993-94 season was the most productive of Wendel Clark's career, with the former captain racking up a career high 46 goals, 30 assists and 76 points in just 64 games. Granted, Matthews isn't likely to come anywhere close to Clark's 115 PIMs that year, but he's not exactly known for that roughneck hockey either.
Since enduring a bit of a scoring slump in November, Matthews has come alive in the month of December, scoring 7 goals and 9 points in his last 5 games. If he can keep this up, it won't be a matter of when he breaks Mats Sundin's goal scoring and points records, but rather, how soon.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 13 | 915 ANSWERS Auston Matthews making Wendel Clark's 1993-94 season look like child's play Will Auston Matthews break 65 goals this season? | ||
| Yes | 420 | 45.9 % |
| No | 331 | 36.2 % |
| 65? He's gonna top 70! | 71 | 7.8 % |
| I'll be surprised if he hits 60 after his slow NOV | 93 | 10.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
