The Toronto Maple Leafs are Auston Matthews’ team.
For years, it was the core four and, more specifically, the Matthews-and Marner-led Maple Leafs, but now that the latter is a Vegas Golden Knight, the onus falls squarely on the shoulders of number 34.
An injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign saw him produce the lowest goal total of his nine-year NHL career to date, and if the Maple Leafs want to remain atop the Atlantic Division without Marner, they’ll need Matthews to return to MVP form.
Spencer Lazary of The Hockey News is convinced that’s going to happen, predicting that Matthews will rack up his third career 60-goal season in 2025-26.
“The last prediction is that the aforementioned Matthews will return to his elite scoring form and hit 60 goals again for the third time in his nine-year career. As mentioned earlier, he dealt with injuries all last season and finished with 33 goals in 67 games. If he is back to full health, there is a very good chance he will be motivated to prove that he can still be one of the best players in the league without Marner. As soon as Marner left this summer, there was plenty of talk that Matthews would not be the same without him. I disagree. Matthews thrives when people doubt him, and that will fuel him to have one of the best seasons of his career,” Lazary wrote.
The 27-year-old admitted after the season that it was a tough year physically, in which he missed 15 games because of a nagging upper-body injury that sidelined him on two separate occasions.
Matthews, at full health, should bounce back
It was evident all season long, even when in the lineup, that Auston Matthews was not one hundred percent healthy last year.
He lacked the explosive skating stride and powerful shot we’ve become so accustomed to seeing on a nightly basis. As Lazary mentioned, even while not looking like himself, Matthews was still producing at over a point per game, among some of the best players in the league.
Assuming the Maple Leafs captain enters 2025-26 feeling strong and healthy, there’s no reason to believe he won’t at least get back to scoring 50 goals and challenging for his fourth Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy.
