Auston Matthews within striking distance of breaking an iconic Maple Leafs franchise record this season
Auston Matthews is not only entering his first season as captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he also has a legitimate chance to break Mats Sundin's iconic record.
For years, it looked like Mats Sundin's all-time goals record in Toronto would remain untouched, but when the Leafs drafted Auston Matthews 1st overall in 2016, all bets were off.
Matthews put up an astonishing 40 goals in his rookie campaign in 2016-17, and has since managed to tally 368 career goals in just 562 career NHL games. The word "prolific" doesn't even begin to describe Matthews' unique scoring ability.
Sundin's record of 420 goals is well within Matthews' reach this season, and it's not only already a forgone conclusion that he'll eventually break the record -- he's going to absolutely shatter it with 4 more seasons remaining on his current contract.
Matthews needs just 52 goals to tie Sundin's record. Call me crazy, but the guy who scored 69 times last season on some of the biggest and most athletic goaltenders we've ever seen is probably going to score 52 goals sitting in a chair next season.
A season or two ago, questions were already beginning to arise over whether Auston Matthews is the greatest Maple Leaf of all-time. Granted, he still has a ways to go to earn that moniker, but he's well on his way, and you could even make the argument that he's in the top-3 right now with the number of franchise records he already broken.
Source: HockeyDB
Auston Matthews player profile
| POLL | ||
AOUT 24 | 770 ANSWERS Auston Matthews within striking distance of breaking an iconic Maple Leafs franchise record this season Will Auston Matthews break Mats Sundin's all-time goal scoring record this season? | ||
| Yes, 52 is an easy mark for Papi | 669 | 86.9 % |
| No, but he'll break it next season | 101 | 13.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
