Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews reaches 400 goals faster than Ovechkin
With his 400th career goal, Toronto Maple Leafs sniper Auston Matthews joined elite company.
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It was only a matter of when, not if, Auston Matthews would continue to climb the NHL’s all-time goals list.
The Toronto Maple Leafs captain registered his 400th career goal in the third period against the Buffalo Sabres.
After the Sabres pulled goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with just over two minutes left in the game, Matthews got to a loose puck in the zone and fired a shot into the empty cage to notch the career milestone.
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With the goal, Matthews also joined elite company.
The 27-year-old needed just 628 games to score 400 times, becoming the sixth-fastest player to do it. That list features some of the greatest goal scores of all-time, including Wayne Gretzky (436 games), Mike Bossy (506), Mario Lemieux (508), Brett Hull (520) and Jari Kurri (608). Alex Ovechkin took 634 games to score his 400th goal plateau on his way to becoming the NHL’s all-time goals scoring leader.
Matthews has been regarded as one of the top goal-scorers since entering the league. Since making his debut in 2016, he’s scored at a 0.64 goals-per-game pace, putting him fifth on the NHL’s all-time list.
Matthews has seen a dip in production as injuries have led to him appearing in just 66 of Toronto’s 81 games this season, scoring 32 goals and 76 points. Last season he came one goal shy of 70 goals after scoring 69 in 81 games.
