Two young Leafs join a pair of all-time Leaf greats in the franchise record books
With the Florida Panthers losing to the Ottawa Senators last night, the Leafs clinched a playoff spot for the seventh consecutive year. That means that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have reached the playoffs in each of their first seven seasons in the NHL and puts them in the company of a pair of Leaf legends.
Marner and Matthews have become just the fifth and sixth Leafs in franchise history to reach the playoffs in each of their first seven NHL seasons, joining Ian Turnbull, Turk Broda, Dave Keon and the late Borje Salming. Marner and Matthews will have still have some work to do next season if they want to tie Salming and Turnbull for the all-time franchise record as they each reached the playoffs in their first eight seasons, but they are still in rarefied air.
While Matthews has had an "off" year compared to his standard, he is still on pace to crack 40 goals and Marner is 6 points away from his first 100-point season in the NHL. With 9 games left for the Leafs, Marner, who has a point in 63 of 73 games so far this season should have no issues hitting the century mark. Matthews on the other hand is just 4 goals away from his fourth straight 40-goal season with 9 games remaining.
