Auston Matthews within striking distance of Mats Sundin
The new Leafs captain can catch the beloved former Leafs captain in the franchise record books!
There's a new captain in Leaf Land, and it's the best goal scoring forward in today's NHL. The Leafs decided to name Auston Matthews the 26th captain in team history after John Tavares voluntarily stepped down from the role, marking the second major change in leadership this offseason following the termination of head coach Sheldon Keefe and subsequent hiring of Craig Berube.
With an incredible 69 goals last season, Matthews once again captured the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the top goal scorer in the League, the third time in the last four years he's accomplished the feat. And thanks to his scoring exploits, he's quickly climbed the ladder of Leafs franchise history and is now within striking distance to catch a beloved former captain in his own right.
Matthews has scored 368 goals since entering the League after being taken with the 1st overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, and is now only 52 tallies being Mats Sundin for 1st in team history despite having played in 419 less games in a Leafs uniform. He's also only 19 away from catching Darryl Sittler's mark of 389 goals.
Considering that Matthews has scored 60, 49 and 69 goals respectively the last three seasons, passing Sittler in the Leafs record books this season is as close to a near certainty as one could hope. Additionally, he very well could find himself as the leading Leafs scorer of all time by the time the 2024-25 regular season draws to a close.
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