In recent years there have been few powerful goals in the National Hockey League than Captain Auston Matthews of Toronto Maple Leafs. He won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the top scorer in the competition in three of the last four seasons.
But after reaching 69 goals in the NHL season 2023-24, Matthews has considered his target core production considerably this season. Due to 46 games played (he missed several matches with an injury), he scored only 22 goals and is on a pace to only reach 30.
Although scoring 30 goals for most players would be a good output, it is far removed from what Matthews is used to scoring, and he knows.
“I clearly want to score more,” said Auston Matthews on Wednesday. “I will try to stop touching so many messages, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I just have to keep photographing and keeping to believe … Scoring has been my thing, but I like I am a complete player.”
Many would claim that Matthews could attribute his fall in the target score to the more defensive oriented playing system that first-year Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube runs, who emphasizes that the puck keeps out of their own net instead of a run-and-grun offensive style.
Auston Matthews and the Leafs roll the dice on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas and compete against the Vegas Golden Knights in T-Mobile Arena.
Auston Matthews would like the Maple Leafs to make additions to their schedule at the NHL -Handelsdeadline
In addition to becoming fair about his target score, Matthews also made his thoughts crystal clearly about the approaching trade theadline. He made no secret about the fact that he would like to see additions to the schedule in a similar way that a handful of clubs has already done.
“This time of year you see adding teams, and you also want to add,” added Matthews on Tuesday per daily faceoff. “So I am sure that management and staff are thinking a lot at the moment, a lot of homework and doing things like that, and I leave it in their hands.”
Earlier today, the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand in a deal with the Seattle Kraken, while the Colorado Avalanche recently picked up both Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey from the New York Rangers; The Edmonton Oilers acquired Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins.
The Maple Leafs have done significant acquisitions at recent Handelsdeadlines, including Luke Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly in 2023.
Published by Brad Taningco