Auston Matthews on track for one of the best rookie seasons in NHL history
If he keeps this up Auston Matthews will finish with one of the best rookie seasons the NHL has ever seen.
The Toronto Maple Leafs 19-year-old sensation scored twice, including the overtime winner, in Sunday’s Centennial Classic and now leads all first-year players with 20 goals and 32 points through 36 games.
The No. 1 pick of the 2016 draft is currently on pace for 46 goals, a mark reached by only six rookies in NHL history — Alex Ovechkin’s 52 in 2005-06 the most recent in a mostly Hall-of-Fame group that includes Teemu Selanne (76), Mike Bossy (53), Wayne Gretzky (51) Joe Nieuwendyk (51) and Blair MacDonald, who was 26-years-old when he tallied 46 for Edmonton.
Matthews accomplishing the feat might be more impressive.