Matthews scores 400th NHL goal for Maple Leafs

Auston Matthews scored his 400th NHL goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old forward reached the milestone by scoring into an empty net at 18:08 of the third period in a 4-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. He is the 110th player in NHL history, and 10th active, to score at least 400 goals.

Matthews, who has 32 goals in 66 games this season, became the seventh player in NHL 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. He joined Alex Ovechkin (15), Mike Gartner (15), Wayne Gretzky (13), Jari Kurri (10), Mike Bossy (10) and Bryan Trottier (nine).

Last season, Matthews scored an NHL career-high 69 goals in 81 games to win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for the third time in four seasons. He also won it in 2021-22, when he scored 60 goals in 73 games, and in 2020-21, when he scored 41 goals in 52 games.

Selected by the Maple Leafs with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Matthews leads the League with 400 goals in 628 games since he made his NHL debut on Oct. 12, 2016.

Matthews has the highest career goals per game rate among active players (0.64), and according to NHL Stats he has the fifth-highest goals per game rate in NHL history (minimum 200 goals), behind only Bossy (0.76), Mario Lemieux (0.75), Cy Denneny (0.75) and Babe Dye (0.75).

Matthews is also 20 goals behind Mats Sundin for the most in Maple Leafs history. Sundin scored 420 goals in 981 games.

When asked if he thought he could become the NHL's all-time leader in goals -- Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals broke Gretzky's record earlier this month and currently has 896 -- the Toronto captain said he didn't want to think that far ahead.

"That's such a long way away or such a long way to go," Matthews said after practice on Monday. "And you know, I don't even think I should be in that conversation."

Toronto (51-26-4), which will finish first in the Atlantic Division and play the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference First Round, has qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of Matthews' nine seasons.