Toronto Maple Leafs: 4 Players Looking to Reach Career Milestones

Every NHL season, there are players on every team looking to reach career milestones. The Toronto Maple Leafs are no different. They have four players this season who will be looking to reach some big milestones.

In this article I will be looking at four players on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster who could reach impressive milestones this season.

I’m sure there are other milestones that will be reached by Toronto players this season, but these are the big ones.

Let’s take a look at what the 2021-22 NHL season could have in store for some of the Maple Leafs biggest stars.

Toronto Maple Leafs Reaching For Career Milestones

Jason Spezza

Of all the players on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster this season, Jason Spezza is the one looking to reach two very big milestones. The best part is that both milestones are within easy reach for the 38-year-old NHL veteran.

The first and easiest milestone for Spezza to achieve will be games played. He is just 23 games away from reaching 1,200 games played. Spezza currently sits 134th overall for games played in the NHL.

There are currently only 114 players in the history of the NHL who have played in1,200 or more NHL games. Spezza and a few others will look to be joining that group this season.

The next milestone on Spezza’s list will be for points. He is 30 points away from reaching career point number 1,000. Last season, Spezza had 30 points in 54 games. If the NHL can have a full season of 82 games, then Spezza should have no problem reaching this milestone. (All Stats from hockey-reference.com)

John Tavares

The captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs will have a lucky number this season, and that number will be 900. John Tavares is 30 games away from reaching 900 games played. If he stays healthy and the NHL has a full season, Tavares should reach and surpass the 900 games played milestone.

The next milestone for Tavares will depend on how healthy he can be this season. He is 81 points away from reaching career point number 900. In his last 82 game season, Tavares recorded 88 points. He will have to play to that caliber if he wants to reach career point number 900 this season.

Auston Matthews

Auston Matthews is looking to reach four milestones this season. The first and easiest milestone for Matthews to reach will be for career goal number 200. He needs just one goal to reach 200 and he could do it in the first game of the season.

The next milestone on his list will be for points. Matthews needs 49 points to reach career point number 400. Considering that he has never had fewer than 60 points in a season, this should be easy for him to achieve.

The third milestone for Matthews to reach for this season is for games played. Matthews just needs to play in 66 more games to reach career game number 400. If can stay healthy, this should not be a problem.

The last milestone for Matthews will be to try and break Rick Vaive’s goals in a season by a Maple Leaf record. Vaive’s record is 54 goals which he set in the 1981-82 season. Matthews has come close with 47 goals in 70 games during the 2019-20 season. This could be the year we finally see the record broken.

Mitch Marner

Mitch Marner has three milestones to look forward to this season. All three of the milestones should be easy for him to achieve. The first milestone on his list is for points. He needs 42 points to reach career point number 400.

The next milestone on his list will be for games played. Marner needs to play 45 more games to reach 400 games played. He has been pretty healthy so far in his career, and hasn’t missed many games, so this should be an easy milestone to achieve.

The third milestone for Marner to reach for also involves the number 45. Marner is 45 assists away from reaching career assist number 300. Playing on the wing with Matthews or Tavares should make this milestone easy to achieve.

It will fun to watch these four players playing for all these milestones. I know some who say regular season milestones don’t mean much without playoff success, but at the end of a career, games played and points totals do mean a lot.