Can Leafs’ Matthews reach 70 goals?
When Wayne Gretzky set the NHL scoring record of 92 goals in a season in 1981-82, there was considerable buzz during the year about how many goals he might score. During Brett Hull’s 86goal season in 1990-91, USA TODAY published a story about whether it was possible for a player to score 100.
It’s been a while since a goal scorer has lit up the hockey world. Maybe that will change.
Nobody is saying Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews will score like Hull or Gretzky, but Matthews’ 10 goals (and 16 points) in the first seven games have rekindled the romance with the pure goal scorer. The wonder of projecting how many goals a player can score has returned.
“I would hate to put a number on what Auston can do, because I think the sky is the limit for him,” said former goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, now USA Hockey’s director of hockey operations.
Matthews scored 40 goals as a 19year-old rookie and netted 34 in 64 games during an injury-shortened 2017-18 second-year season. That’s a 45-goal full-season pace.
He’s been even more impressive early this season, often looking unstoppable as he roars up ice. (If Matthews, who is scoring at a 45.5 percent rate, kept up this pace, he’d score 117 goals, an NHL record.)
“To score 50 in this league is an incredible accomplishment, to close in on 60 would be MVP stuff,” NBC analyst Ed Olczyk said.
From 1981-1994, every player who led the NHL in goals netted 60 or more. From 1988-1993, no goals leader had fewer than 70. But since the NHL started awarding the Rocket Richard trophy to the goal-scoring champion in 1999, Alex Ovechkin (2008) and Steven Stamkos (2012) are the only winners to register 60 or more.
Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said: “I don’t know if 60 goals is realistic in today’s game.”
“I think he’s capable certainly of getting in that 50-goal range,” he continued, “but I think the focus of his team is trying to do everything they can to win, and that sometimes can restrict you from getting higher than that.”
Former NHL player Mike Murphy, now the league’s vice president of hockey operations, said, “If you can get above 60 today I think you are talking Gretzky-like.”
Vanbiesbrouck said Matthews’ shot release ranks in quickness “with the top players who have ever played.”
Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard said Matthews could score “50 to 60 easily.”
“He’s so dangerous, and they have built a good team around him,” Howard said. “His release is very deceptive. It’s on his stick, it’s off. He can go high, or go low. He has the reach, strength.”
Vanbiesbrouck said the most unique aspect of Matthews’ game “is that he can play and think at such high speed.”
Matthews scored at least one goal in six of the first seven games and registered multiple points in all seven. Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens are the only others with seven multiple-point games to start a season.
It’s interesting to note Gretzky didn’t have 10 goals after seven games in his record-breaking goal (92 in 1981-82) season.
“I don’t know what it is. I’m just trying to play hockey, have fun, get those opportunities and try to cash in,” Matthews said.