Where Does Auston Matthews Rank For You As A Goal Scorer All Time?

[mkatcherin00]

Amazing considering the difference in eras. Bossy only played in his prime years too,

That's true.

Bossy and Co were all amazing, but the goalies were easier to beat. I think there was just less talent overall compared to now and guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, etc just killed the league.]

Harder to do it now

 

[34]

AM34 is a weapon. 40 goals already by the All Star break.

he will go down as the best goal scorer to ever play the game once it is all said and done.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

pretty sure he just beat McDavid and Bure , took them 48 games to get to 40. So he is the fastest since sometime before Bure

 

[TheDoldrums]

He is 3rd in GPG right now

Highest all-time goals per game:

0.76 — Mike Bossy
0.75 — Mario Lemieux
0.64 — Auston Matthews

It's crazy impressive to only be behind a couple guys from the highest scoring era, but to be fair that doesn't include Matthews decline phase obviously. I think comparing his first 'x' amount of years/games to others is a more fair comparison, where he still comes out looking amazing.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

pretty sure he just beat McDavid and Bure , took them 48 games to get to 40. So he is the fastest since sometime before Bure

Good question, how far back before Bure? Crazy watching him keep doing things that haven’t happened for 20 - 30+ years.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Good question, how far back before Bure? Crazy watching him keep doing things that haven’t happened for 20 - 30+ years.

Matthews has 40 goals in 46 personal games (47 team games).

The last time a player got to 40 goals faster was Mario Lemieux in 1996 (38 personal games, 44 team games).

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

pretty sure he just beat McDavid and Bure , took them 48 games to get to 40. So he is the fastest since sometime before Bure

Bure played in the dead puck era. I still think Bure is the better pure goal scorer over Matthews. He didn’t need anyone setting him up. He scored all his goals from outgunning the opposition and blowing right past defenders. He was literally a one man show.

Matthews benefits greatly by having Marner on his wing. Take Marner off the team and Matthews goal total takes a bit of a hit.

 

[wetcoast]

Top 30. His start isnt unprecedented.

For reference, Selanne started as hot as Matthews has. In his first 7 seasons he had 3 Rockets, and 313 G in 485 games (0.64 GPG)

2 things here.

1. Why use 7 seasons when Matthews is already in his 8th year? Maybe because Selanne had 7 less goals in his entire 8th year that Matthews has now.

2. Selanne's first 7 seasons run him to age 28, 2 years older than Matthews is in his 8th season.

 

[wetcoast]

he's a great scorer. but his biggest fans can be annoying in how persistent they are in seeking validation in their belief in how great he is, which brings him down to good.

Seems to be a thing among post lockout goal scorers eh?

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Bure played in the dead puck era. I still think Bure is the better pure goal scorer over Matthews. He didn’t need anyone setting him up. He scored all his goals from outgunning the opposition and blowing right past defenders. He was literally a one man show.

Matthews benefits greatly by having Marner on his wing. Take Marner off the team and Matthews goal total takes a bit of a hit.

Bure also had to be introduced to his own goalie at year’s end.

 

[authentic]

Bure also had to be introduced to his own goalie at year’s end.

Bure also played one of his best seasons in 1992-93, among the 2 or 3 highest scoring seasons of all-time and scored 60 goals. I think very highly of Bure but if anything Matthews is the slightly better goal scorer and better all around player.

 

[Busher]

Matthews becomes just the 25th player to record 40 goals in 6 different seasons.

Just about every other member of the club (except Kovalchuk) is in the Hall of Fame or has punched their ticket.

 

[Divine]

Matthews has a shot at being the best even strengh goal scorer of all time.

He's currently leading the league in even strength goals for the 5th time already.

The NHL record is 6 times, by Bobby Hull.

 

[Randyne]

Let’s have Lemieux play with no 2 line pass rule

Was he the only one, who affected by this rule? No. So, what prevented him to win 9 rockets like Ovechkin? Oh yeah, imaginary games, that he didn't play. Right? In reality, 9 Rockets is 3 times more than 3 Rockets.
Also, let's Ovechkin play with 5x Ross Jagr and 3x Norris Coffey, Recchi and Francis.

Don’t embarrass anyone by comparing them to Lemieux

Why? Is he some kind of a sacred god or something, why he cannot be compared with someone?
Are you a worship leader? Also "lol" is not an argument.

 

[Incognito]

Put it this way: if not for injuries and a global pandemic, Matthews would likely have become the Leafs all-time leader in goals with 420+ by the end of this season.

He’s 26.

 

[NVious]

So going into this year, he had one of the greatest goal scoring years in NHL history and then had an extremely meh playoffs. Did it move the needle as a whole? On one hand he leads active players in g/60 with nearly 2, but on the other hand he is 32nd in g/60 in the playoffs (24th if you remove 30 and less games played).

If he retires today he is easily top 50, I guess he holds the cards in his hand, he has the potential to go down as the greatest goal scorer of all time or he could really flame out if he doesn't put together some damn good playoffs soon.

Ovechkin had 371 goals after his first 8 years (one shortened by a lockout)
Matthews has 368 (one shortened by Covid)

 

[Three On Zero]

I would rank him…… 175th

 

[NVious]

I would rank him…… 175th

Do you think he can pass Adam Oates or Scott Young?

 

[dalewood12]

I think Matthews' peak could be higher than Ovechkin's (over say a five year stretch), but I don't think he will have the consistency of Ovie, like scoring 50 goals at 37 years old.

 

[Non Player Canadiens]

maybe Top 100?

 

[Golden_Jet]

So going into this year, he had one of the greatest goal scoring years in NHL history and then had an extremely meh playoffs. Did it move the needle as a whole? On one hand he leads active players in g/60 with nearly 2, but on the other hand he is 32nd in g/60 in the playoffs (24th if you remove 30 and less games played).

If he retires today he is easily top 50, I guess he holds the cards in his hand, he has the potential to go down as the greatest goal scorer of all time or he could really flame out if he doesn't put together some damn good playoffs soon.

Ovechkin had 371 goals after his first 8 years (one shortened by a lockout)
Matthews has 368 (one shortened by Covid)

Ovi also lost another season before his career started.

 

[Regal]

I feel like when we assess the best goalscorers the focus doesn’t tend to be on whether they perform in the playoffs as much as when simply assessing the best players until we get into that “top 10” kind of range. Stamkos tends to get a lot of flack for the playoffs as an overall player but it doesn’t seem to get brought up in best goalscorer discussions as much. Matthews has been one of the best all time up to his current age. Assuming a natural career arc I’d be surprised if he isn’t in top 10 discussions when his career is over, though likely on the lower end if he doesn’t improve his playoff numbers and/or have unusual longevity as a Richard winner/threat

 

[wetcoast]

I feel like when we assess the best goalscorers the focus doesn’t tend to be on whether they perform in the playoffs as much as when simply assessing the best players until we get into that “top 10” kind of range. Stamkos tends to get a lot of flack for the playoffs as an overall player but it doesn’t seem to get brought up in best goalscorer discussions as much. Matthews has been one of the best all time up to his current age. Assuming a natural career arc I’d be surprised if he isn’t in top 10 discussions when his career is over, though likely on the lower end if he doesn’t improve his playoff numbers and/or have unusual longevity as a Richard winner/threat

Without looking at it he is one of 25 players with 6+ years of 40 goals or more and 3 times the goal scoring leader.

Also after his first 8 NHL seasons he leads all players in goals, outscoring Ovechkin by 40 over that time period and will likely lead all NHL players during his time in the NHL for a large part of his career.

That has to make him in the discussion for top 50ish already right?

 

[Regal]

Without looking at it he is one of 25 players with 6+ years of 40 goals or more and 3 times the goal scoring leader.

Also after his first 8 NHL seasons he leads all players in goals, outscoring Ovechkin by 40 over that time period and will likely lead all NHL players during his time in the NHL for a large part of his career.

That has to make him in the discussion for top 50ish already right?

Yea I feel like top 50 is probably a given right now. The other question is whether goal scoring should focus more on peak/prime or longevity. I tend to think best 7-8 years are more important than still being a decent goal scorer in year 15 or whatever, which would favour him so far. Like I think he’s clearly better than say an Iginla as a goal scorer even if he doesn’t have that longevity so far.

 

[Community]

He's one of the best I've ever seen on capitalizing on freebies. Score 3-4 in a nothing game or easy W covers for the frequent no-shows in high stakes games. 'Goal scoring' vs. what he and his team have ultimately accomplished on the ice so far through his career (nothing) go hand in hand imo.

Very entertaining player. Will pad the stats for a very lucrative but ultimately underwhelming career. Ovechkin-lite.

Maybe fact check next time? Before last year, he had 7 hat tricks in 7 years which is absurdly low for an elite goal scorer. Shows how incredibly consistent he is to still put up the goal totals he has with minimal hat tricks.

Over the last 5 years, Matthews has by far the most games with at least 1 goal scored (aka consistent, not scoring in bunches).