70-goal season: Auston Matthews on track for a rare feat

In the 2021-2022 season, Auston Matthews achieved a feat that few players are capable of accomplishing.

The feat of 60 goals in one season is very rare. In the same season, the American also scored 51 goals in 50 games. However, this feat is marked with an asterisk, as the 50 games were not played in the same season.

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– Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 27, 2022

But this year, he has a real chance to achieve Maurice Richard’s feat. In 29 games, he has scored 26 goals. It’s a tall order, but if there’s a maverick in the NHL who can do it, it’s Cole Caufield Matthews.

Another spectacular feat is within his grasp: scoring 70 goals. As of today, he’s on track for 73, which gives him a bit of leeway.

In NHL history, only eight different players have achieved the feat of scoring so many goals in a single campaign. Wayne Gretzky (four times), Brett Hull (three times), Mario Lemieux (twice), Alexander Mogilny, Phil Esposito, Teemu Selanne, Jari Kurri and Bernie Nicholls (once) have all written their names in the record books.

The last to do so were Selanne and Mogilny in 1992-1993.

The Leafs’ forward could therefore be the first to find the back of the net 70 times in almost 30 years. That’s a long time…

In the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy, awarded to the top scorer in the regular season, 34 is two goals ahead of Brock Boeser (24) and three ahead of Nikita Kucherov (23). The race for the award will be tight until the very end.

One thing’s for sure, Matthews’ “below expectations” 2022-2023 season may just have been a misstep. Although I’ll take 40 goals any day of the week. In league history, among players with at least 200 goals, he ranks fifth in goals per game (0.64), ahead of, among others, Alexander Ovechkin.

In gusto

– Jorian Donovan joins the team.

– Good to see him on the move.

– Just imagining.

– Really?