If Auston Matthews plays out the entirety of his next contract in Toronto, he'll make history
With Auston Matthews signing his mega-extension, it more or less gives him an ample amount of time to etch his name further into the good graces of the fanbase and the history books.
Matthews has been everything people imagined and then some since being drafted first overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. He has 299 goals and 542 points in just 481 games and has never scored less than 34 goals in a single season - and that came in just 62 games.
Everything is, of course, health permitting, but Matthews is already blazing his path to being one of the best goal scorers in history with his goals per game average being within the top-7 all-time through his first 7 seasons.
Within the Maple Leafs franchise, Matthews is already 5th in goals, 11th in points, 5th in power play goals, and has the 2nd best points-per-game average behind only Doug Gilmour.
As Scott Wheeler of The Athletic pointed out, if Matthews scores at his career rate and plays around 70 games per season over the course of his contract, he will be around 100 goals past Mats Sundin, who currently sits atop the all-time Maple Leafs goal scoring list with 420 goals.
Sundin also holds the franchise record with 987 points and for Matthews to topple that within the next 5 seasons, he will need to average 89 points, which is very doable considering the fact that he averages 1.13 points per game and around 93 points in a full 82 game slate. Last 4 seasons alone, he's averaging 0.70 goals and 1.25 points per game.
Matthews only receiving 4 years is probably not what most of the fan base was hoping for as he tries to cash in one more time down the road. However, his skills have been on full display since his NHL debut and he has the opportunity to become the franchise's all-time leading scorer by the time he's 30. Pretty impressive stuff for a kid from the desert.
| POLL | ||
AOUT 24 | 367 ANSWERS If Auston Matthews plays out the entirety of his next contract in Toronto, he'll make history Will Auston Matthews pass Mats Sundin as the Maple Leafs' all-time leading goal scorer before his next deal is finished? | ||
| Yes | 341 | 92.9 % |
| No | 26 | 7.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
