‘He’s more engaged’: Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews entering 2025-26 healthy and ready to go
TORONTO – Since breaking into the NHL in 2016-17, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews has played in 75 or more games just twice.
One of those was 2023-24, where he scored a personal best 69 goals and 107 points in 81 games. Not only did he lead the league in goals, but he was a finalist for the Lady Byng and the Selke Trophy, too. So 2024-25 felt like a down year for the scoring superstar. Matthews scored just 33 goals and 78 points in 67 games with the Maple Leafs, missing 15 games with an upper-body issue suffered during training camp.
The good news? He appears to be in full health heading into 2025-26.
“I’m super happy with how I feel and how the first two days have gone,” Matthews said during a media scrum on Friday. “That’s all you can ask for. You never really know until you get back out and you can do everything in he summer, and train and skate. But once you get back into this kind of feeling, you want to respond and feel really good. And I definitely have.”
His coach, Craig Berube, has noticed the positives early on.
“I see him, he’s more engaged. I think he’s feeling good,” Berube said. “He’s harder, heavier on pucks. You can see a little bit of difference out there.”
At his best, Matthews is, undisputedly, one of the best players in the NHL. The 2022 Hart Trophy winner has struggled to stay healthy for an entire season. But when he’s at full strength, Matthews is as good as they come.
While he appears to be ready to challenge for the NHL’s scoring lead again, Matthews will have to do so without long-time friend and linemate Mitch Marner. Berube has kept Matthews and Matthew Knies together through camp, with Matias Maccelli filling in on the right wing. Many believe that’s Domi’s job once he’s healthy – but for now, it’s all about finding chemistry and trying to adjust heading into 2025-26.
“I think the biggest key is just kind of communicating with the guys as a line individually, just kind of getting feedback on different situations that you’re kind of feeling out there,” Matthews said. “And it’s early, it’s the second day of camp, you just wanna continue to build that chemistry and get a feel for each other on the ice.”
While training camp drills aren’t a perfect representation of what you’ll see when the games already matter, it already appears as though Matthews’ wrist shot is as close to 100 percent as we’ve seen in recent years.
If you ask those around him, nobody seems worried about the changes up front.
“He looks really prepared and looks incredible out there. I’m glad he’s 100 percent healthy,” Knies said. “He comes into each season with the same mentality that he wants to be the best player, and he wants to lead us.”
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