Leafs’ Auston Matthews joins exclusive Wayne Gretzky club after 400th goal

Auston Matthews is officially a member of the 400 club. The Toronto Maple Leafs superstar sealed a 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night, potting an empty netter late in the final frame.

In the process, Matthews became the sixth fastest player to score 400 goals, per NHL.com. It took the 27-year-old sniper just 628 games, six faster than Alex Ovechkin, who scored 400 in 634 games.

Wayne Gretzky was the quickest to achieve the feat, taking just 436 games. Mike Bossy (506), Mario Lemieux (508), Brett Hull (520) and Jari Kurri (608) are the only other players to do it quicker.

“It means lot,” Matthews said after reaching the milestone, per NHL.com’s Heather Engel. “Obviously this group’s been really supportive all year. And individual awards are nice; I think it’s nice to check off certain things, obviously.

“But the focus is still on the team and doing what’s best for the team and continue to put our best foot forward here, one more game and then the postseason. So, we’ve just got to stay focused and stay dialed in mentally on our game and on the guys in this room.”

Matthews is the 110th player in National Hockey League history to score 400 goals, and just the 10th active player. The American has recorded 32 goals in 66 games this season, and became “the seventh player in league history to begin his NHL career with nine consecutive 30-goal seasons when he scored his 30th in a 5-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 5,” per NHL.com.

Although it’s been a bit of a down year scoring wise for Matthews, he remains one of the league’s premier goal scorers. He recorded a ridiculous 69 goals in 81 games in 2023-24 en route to his third Rocket Richard Trophy in four seasons.

Since making his debut in October of 2016, Matthews has scored more goals than any other player with 400 tallies in 628 games. He also owns the highest career goals per game rate among active players at 0.64, and the fifth-highest in NHL history, behind only Bossy (0.76), Lemieux (0.75), Cy Denneny (0.75) and Babe Dye (0.75), per NHL.com.

Although Matthews will certainly appreciate hitting the milestone, his focus now shifts to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs — and the first Battle of Ontario since 2004.

Battle of Ontario on tap between Maple Leafs, Senators in Round 1

It’s been a phenomenal 2024-25 season for the Maple Leafs, who are 51-26-4 through 81 games and have already clinched first place in the Atlantic Division.

Not counting the COVID-restricted 2020-21 campaign, it’s the first time Toronto has won the division since capturing the Northeast Division back in 1999-2000.

The Ottawa Senators will be the Round 1 matchup in the postseason; Ottawa secured the top wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference after missing the playoffs in each of the last seven seasons.

It’s a favorable matchup for Matthews and the Leafs, who will avoid playing the Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers. One of those two teams has represented the East in the Stanley Cup Final every year since 2019. That year, it was the Boston Bruins coming out of the conference — another team Toronto will be thrilled not to play.

The Leafs have qualified for the playoffs in each of Matthews’ nine NHL seasons but won just one round in that span, and they’ll be looking to finally get over the hump in 2025.