Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews reaches 60-goal mark for second time in his career

On Saturday night, Auston Matthews went from zero to 60.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ forward scored late in the third period of the team’s 3-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Matthews becomes just the ninth player in NHL history to score 60 goals multiple times in his career, and the first since Pavel Bure did so in 1993-94 with the Vancouver Canucks.

The only active players to reach the 60-goal mark are Alex Ovechkin (65 in 2007-08), Steven Stamkos (60 in 2011-12), and both Connor McDavid (64) and David Pastrnak (61) in 2022-23.

The 26-year-old leads the league in goals with 60, eight ahead of Edmonton Oilers’ forward Zach Hyman and nine ahead of Florida Panthers’ forward Sam Reinhart. He is currently on track to win his third Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy in four years (2020-21, 2021-22).

Drafted No. 1 overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Matthews has been one of the league’s most prolific goal scorers. Now in his eighth season, he’s only had two seasons where he scored less than 40 goals (2017-18, 2018-19), and in both of those campaigns, he played less than 70 games.

Matthews is the only U.S.-born player to reach the 60-goal mark in NHL history.

The Maple Leafs are now 42-22-9 with 93 points, third in the Atlantic Division. They will likely play one of the Panthers or the Boston Bruins, two teams that have eliminated Toronto in the playoffs in recent years.