Auston Matthews on pace to do something that he's never done before in his NHL career
Auston Matthews has been a revelation for the Toronto Maple Leafs since being drafted 1st overall back in 2016. I often find it funny that he was never viewed as a potential generational talent before his draft year. I suppose taking an unconventional route through the Swiss-A league in his draft year was enough to throw people off. Knowing now what we didn't know then, I doubt there would have been any question whatsoever as to whether the Leafs would select Matthews or the guy who many thought had the skill to go 1st, Patrik Laine.
Take nothing away from Laine, who has turned into an excellent NHL player, but he's not even in the same stratosphere as Auston Matthews, who became the 1st player to score 60 goals in a season in a decade last year. The rate at which Matthews scores puts him among the elite of the elite, which is why what he's doing this year is so surprising.
Matthews is currently on pace to finish this season with more assists than goals. While that often seems to be the case for most players in the NHL, Matthews is a unicorn. He has finished with more goals than assists in each of his first 6 NHL seasons and has racked up 267 goals and 210 assists for 477 points through 426 regular season NHL games. So far this season, Matthews has scored 8 goals and added 12 assists.
Perhaps the scariest thing about Matthews' 8 goals and 12 assists through 19 games is that he's actually right where he was at this point last season for goals and he went on to score 60. Could Matthews challenge for the Art Ross Trophy this season? He certainly has to make up a lot of ground to catch Connor McDavid, who is currently ahead of him by 14 points, but hey - anything is possible with a player of Matthews' caliber. He did finish with 106 points in 73 games last year - which is a 117-point pace, which would have been good for 2nd in overall scoring and only 6 points back of McDavid's 123 points.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 20 | 263 ANSWERS Auston Matthews on pace to do something that he's never done before in his NHL career Will Matthews finish the 2022-23 season with more assists than goals for the first time in his career? | ||
| Yes | 104 | 39.5 % |
| No | 114 | 43.3 % |
| He'll score an equal number of goals and assists | 45 | 17.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
