Now that the season has come and gone, some of the season awards have been settled. These awards are typically based on season stats like most goals, most points, etc. The Rocket Richard Trophy is given to the player who leads the NHL in goals, and that is none other than Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews.
Matthews, 26, finished the season one shy of 70 goals, which is the most goals since the salary cap era started (2004). He is coming off a season that many NHL insiders considered to be a down year when he scored 40 goals. Well, this season, he bounced back and started the season with back-to-back hat tricks and then went on to finish the year with 69 goals.
As mentioned before, this is the third time in Matthews’ young career that he has won the Rocket Richard Trophy. He joins Alexander Ovechkin as the only players who have won it more than three times in their careers. Ovechkin has won the award nine times, which is the most in NHL history. However, Matthews could be on pace to surpass that by the end of his time in the NHL.
Matthews has a career of 368 goals in only 562 games and is on a better pace than Ovechkin was at the age of 26 to break the goal-scoring record. That is a long way off, but for now, he will turn his attention to the tough first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins.
More Maple Leafs News & Analysis