Auston Matthews Is on a Historic Pace for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto Maple Leafs sniper, Auston Matthews, has been chasing a 50 goal season. Even if he doesn’t hit the mark this season, he may still make history.

Auston Matthews has been outstanding for the Toronto Maple Leafs during this shortened season. Leafs fans continue to be marveled by his shot, hockey sense, and on-ice chemistry with Mitch Marner.

So far this season, Matthews has lit the lamp 28 times in 37 games. He’s also added 20 helpers for a sum of 48 points. These totals are good enough to put him in sole possession of the NHL goal-scoring lead. The next closest goal scorer in the league is Connor McDavid who has notched 23 goals on the campaign. Matthews is also tied with Marner for fifth-overall in total points this season.

What makes these numbers significant is the pace at which Matthews is able to post them. While he and Marner actually have 48 points each, Matthew has played in three fewer games. The disparity in pace isn’t large but it is significant. Matthews has recorded 1.297 points per game. Marner has 1.200 points per game. Both are impressive but when we scrutinize the numbers using a historical context, we see just how incredible Matthews’s rate has been.

This season, if Matthews can keep up his current pace, and all signs suggest he can, he would secure a spot as one of the Maple Leafs all-time top-10 points per game leaders. His current metric has him owning the eighth-best season as a Toronto Maple Leaf who has played at least 20 games.

The leader in this category is Doug Gilmour who in 1992-93 was unstoppable. He played 83 games where he recorded 127 points, the most ever from a player in the Toronto organization. That equated to a 1.53 p/gp. Gilmour also owns the sixth-best p/gp season. Darryl Sittler also makes the top ten multiple times including his 1977-78 campaign where he had a 1.46 p/gp. Though we don’t recognize him for this list because it didn’t happen with the Maple Leafs but with the Toronto St. Pats, Reg Noble had a spectacular rookie season. During the 1917-18 season, he had 39 goals and 51 assists in 20 games, good for a p/gp marker of 1.95.

What has been driving Matthews’s p/gp is his scoring. His goals per game rate is elite. If Matthews continues to produce at his current pace, he will finish the year with the eighth-best g/gp season in Maple Leafs history. Matthews’s current g/gp is 0.757. The leader in this category is Sweeney Schriner who in 1944-45 scored 22 goals in 26 games, which gave him a 0.846 g/gp. Charlie Conacher is all over this leaderboard. He owns the second, fifth, sixth, and seventh-best g/pg seasons for the Maple Leafs.

How important are these numbers? Every player ahead of Matthews on the p/gp and g/gp lists, with the exception of Lorne Carr (who had the second-best p/gp season with 1.48 in 1943-44), has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. That puts Matthews in noble company.

As impressive as Matthews has been this season, it’s impossible to deny Marner’s contribution. The crafty winger is no stranger to these lists. Last season Marner earned the fifth-best assist per game campaign in Toronto Maple Leafs history. He had 51 in 59 games. That gave him an a/gp of 0.864. The best ever posted by a Leaf came from that outstanding 1992-93 season by Gilmour. His 95 assists in 83 games meant that he had 1.145 assists per outing. The only other time a Maple Leaf managed to have an a/gp greater than 1.0 was the very next season, once again by Gilmour.

This season, Marner is on track to bump last year’s a/gp down in the all-time rankings. After picking up an assist in Toronto’s win on Wednesday, he is now averaging 0.873 assists per game. If Marner could hang onto this number, it would put him at fourth all-time, slightly behind Sittler’s 0.900, earned in 1977-78.

There’s no doubt that the duo of Matthews and Marner are fun to cheer on as they fill the score sheet. Hopefully, they’re both able to maintain course and continue to make history.