Former Leafs F Rick Vaive sounds off on “kid from Arizona” breaking his goals record!

There's a new name in the Toronto Maple Leafs goal scoring record book, and for the first time in several decades, it's not Rick Vaive. 

The red-hot Auston Matthews tallied two goals during last night's matchup against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, the first of which officially cemented his status as the top offensive season in team history with his 55th of the season.

Of course, he'd follow that up with the overtime game-winning goal for good measure. 

Vaive himself is happy to see his record finally broken, though like most of us, he never would have believed it would be accomplished by a youngster from Arizona. 

If someone had told me 20 or 30 years ago a kid from Arizona was going to break it," Vaive said with a laugh, "I would have gone, 'Come on, you've got to be kidding."'

"You're looking at a generational talent," Vaive continued. "I'm happy for him. I really am."

Of course, Matthews is currently the reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner, having scored 41 goals in 52 games in last season's COVID-19 shortened campaign. And he's clearly got his sights trained on a repeat performance.

"It was about a half an hour long. I watched it and I went, 'Holy crap. He's working like crazy,"' said Vaive after watching footage of Matthews' offseason training. "I thought, 'He's going to it do pretty soon.'"

"I hope he gets to 65. Nobody's going to break that except for maybe him."

Vaive is also happy to see an increased level of maturity from Matthews since the disorderly conduct complaint from a female security guard (which was eventually dismissed) was leveled against him. 

"That really kick-started things," Vaive said. "I think he was a little embarrassed.

"But he came out of it stronger and worked extremely hard to become a better player and a better person."