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Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthews Led NHL in Even-Strength Goals

By James Tanner

Mar 22, 2017; Columbus, OH, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) shoots the puck during warmups prior to the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 22, 2017; Columbus, OH, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) shoots the puck during warmups prior to the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /
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Toronto Maple Leafs rookie sensation Auston Matthews led the NHL in 5v5 goal scoring this past season.

While Auston Matthews won’t be receiving the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer, his accomplishment is arguably better than leading the league in overall goals.  He should at least get the Toronto Maple Leafs a major award by winning the Calder, however.

While his team was playing 5v5 hockey, Auston Matthews scored more goals than anyone else in the NHL.  Matthews finished with 40 goals in total, good for second place to Crosby, and tied with Kucherov,  but Matthews scored 30 goals at 5v5.

For a rookie to lead the NHL in this category is insane.

The argument for 5v5 goals being more important is as follows: Power-Play goals are going to be scored.  If you take away the PP goals Crosby scored, someone else is going to replace most of them, because 5 vs 4 is a massive, massive advantage.  Scoring at even-strength is hard, and thus worth more.

Last year Ovechkin led the league with 27 5v5 goals, and the year before that it was Rick Nash with 29.  You have to go back to Corey Perry with 31 5v5 goals in 2013-14 to find someone who topped Matthews.  All three of those guys will be in the Hall of Fame.

That’s pretty amazing.

Toronto Maple Leafs Best Player

It’s one thing for a rookie to be the best player on his team, but it’s incredible that Matthews is actually one of the best players in the entire NHL.  As a rookie.

To put this in perspective, Alexander Ovechkin, who, if you adjust for the era he played in, is the NHL’s greatest goal scorer of all time, scored “only” 28 5v5 goals in his rookie season.  (He did score 51 overall).

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When Gretzky was a rookie, he had 37 5v5 goals. Teemu Selanne had 52 (!) (CBC.ca).

Consider the era those guys played in, Matthews isn’t that far off.

So what we’re saying is this: Matthews just had one of the greatest seasons for a rookie in NHL.  His 40 goals overall (if era adjusted) stand with the best seasons in Maple Leafs History (non-rookies included) and he may end up being one of the greatest goal scorers of all-time.

If you look at Matthews’s stats, you can see that he didn’t get nearly as much power-play time as players of his quality usually get.  For example, Ovechkin had almost 100 more PP minutes this year than Matthew’s did.  Crosby had 55.  Tarasenko 44 more minutes, and Kucherov 34.

Given a third more PP time (easily accomplished) Matthews could have scored 50 goals, as a rookie. Which, if you were to era adjust it, isn’t that far off from Teemu’s 76 goal record.

At this point, I don’t even think Leafs fans realize what they have.

Stats from Corsica.hockey, CBC.ca and NHL.com

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