Season for the ages
Leafs’ rookie Auston Matthews could bring home Calder
It took all of 14 minutes 18 seconds for Auston Matthews to set his first record this season.
On a mid-October night in Ottawa, Matthews became the first player picked first overall at the NHL draft to score two goals in his first period.
He finished the evening as the only player in the league’s 100-year history to score four in a debut.
Before the 19-year-old plays his first playoff game for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Washington later this week, it’s worth pausing to consider how historic Matthews’ rookie season was, not just in the context of the Leafs franchise, but in the league itself.
Matthews truly had a season for the ages.
“You knew he had the talent,” Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews observed recently. “But sometimes it’s just a matter of time before it translates to the NHL and obviously he’s wasted no time. So you kind of wonder, if that’s how he comes out of the gate what’s he going to be like in a couple years from now?”
Matthews set franchise rookie records in scoring 40 goals and collecting 69 points, eclipsing marks by Wendel Clark and Peter Ihnacak which had stood for decades.
He’s the first rookie since Alex Ovechkin to score 40, one of only 19 in league history and one of only six teenagers. He’s only the fourth to hit the mark before his 20th birthday, also now the highest-scoring American rookie in league history.
Only Sidney Crosby scored more goals in the NHL (44) this season.
It goes deeper. Matthews topped even Crosby, and all players for that matter, with 32 even-strength goals. That tied him for the sixth-highest total ever for a rookie, matching Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux and one-time Leaf Mike Gartner. He’s one of nine rookies to ever score that many and the first since 1993.
Already six foot three and 216 pounds, Matthews did it with power, speed and electric skill.
“He scores goals different ways and I think that’s probably a big reason why he’s been so consistent is he’s got a great shot, but he can also score from in close and goes to the net hard too,” Crosby said.