Maple Leafs star Matthews is flying into rarefied air in pursuit of 70 goals

Auston Matthews is on the verge of entering rarefied air in pursuit of 70 goals this season.

Matthews is currently one goal shy with two games remaining in his regular season schedule with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto plays the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, both on the road.

Eight different players have reached the 70-goal mark 14 times, with three players reaching the threshold multiple times: Wayne Gretzky (four), Brett Hull (three) and Mario Lemieux (two).

“It's a rare and special event, and it has to be considered one of the best seasons in NHL history for scoring, that's for sure,” author and hockey historian Andrew Podnieks said of Matthews' campaign.

The last NHL player to score 70 goals was in 1992-93, when Teemu Selanna and Alexander Mogilny each had 76 goals. Phil Esposito (1970-71) is the first to accomplish the feat, with Jarry Curry (1984-85) and Bernie Nicholls (1988-89) completing the 70-goal list.

Mogilny from Russia was the only Asian, while Kurri and Selanna from Finland were the only Europeans. Matthews has the potential to become the first American-born player.

Podnieks pointed out the different ways players like Esposito, Gretzky and Hull scored compared to Matthews. Esposito had the scoring prowess in his game, Gretzky had his trickery and dunks, and Hull was a one-timer powerhouse.

While others of recent memory, such as Alexander Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, used one-timers to score multiple goals, they were right-handed shooters.

“What makes Matthew special or unique is his lefty shot and perfected the one-timer from the other side,” Podnieks said. “So this needs to be fixed for goalies.”

Podnieks points to the difference in coaching, acknowledging that today's players are more nimble, shoot harder and skate faster than in the past.

“Everyone has a system, everyone has a style. “You have to be here when the puck is here. This should be done. This should be done.

“So all of these teams have these structures, and if you talk to Gretzky or Esposito, they say there's no structures … you line up and try to put the puck in the net. So when you have to play within yourself. these structures, I think, will make it easier to defend the game.”

In Matthew's case, he found a way around it.

“Here comes a guy like Matthews, who's cracked the code a little bit and works a little bit outside of those structures or can beat (the defense) despite those structures,” Podnieks said.

“So I think there's definitely something to be said for getting 70 points. Is it harder in this era than it was 30 years ago? You could argue that it's because it hasn't been done in 30 years.

Adjusted for schedule, roster size and era (based on the league's average goals per game at the time) given Hockey Handbook's era-adjusted stats—Matthews is fourth all-time with 70 goals, while Hull leads the list. 78 targets revised in 1990-91.

Conversely, Gretzky's NHL record of 92 goals in 1981-82 would receive an era-corrected adjustment of 68 goals.

Heading into Monday's games, Matthews held a significant lead among the NHL's scoring leaders, 14 ahead of Panthers forward Sam Reinhart.

His previous best was 60, which he achieved in 2021-22. The star center's output that season earned him his first career Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP and his second Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as leading scorer.

Matthews reached 60 goals this season in a 3-0 win over Buffalo on March 30. He became the eighth player to record multiple 60-goal seasons and the first since Pavel Bure did so with the Vancouver Canucks in 1992-93 and 1993-94.

Matthews also became the first American player to accomplish the feat.