When the dust settled on a wild 7-4 defeat of the Nashville Predators on Thursday, it was Auston Matthews who had the game-winning goal. Assisted by Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan, Matthews’ first past a goalie this season put the Leafs up 5-2 midway through the third, eventually securing the win.
With the goal, Matthews moved into sole possession of second place in the Leafs all-time list of most career game-winners. The American centreman now has 64 in his career, one ahead of Dave Keon’s tally of 63. He now sits 15 back from tying Mats Sundin’s franchise leading total of 79.
In a season Auston Matthews is chasing down Mats Sundin's all-time @MapleLeafs goals record, he passed another franchise legend on the club's all-time game-winning goals list. #NHLFaceOff #NHLStats: https://t.co/ZfKxYiiiCG pic.twitter.com/YFNZnUuqMa
— NHL Public Relations (@NHLPR) October 15, 2025
While 15 more game-winning goals might be a tall order to get done this season, but it’s well within Matthews’ reach over the next years of his career. And of course, it’s not the only record he’s chasing down this season. Toronto’s captain is just 16 goals behind Sundin’s franchise-leading goal total of 420 through his career. Most impressively, Sundin tallied that figure through 981 games played, while Matthews is at 404 through just 633 appearances. It’s not hard to imagine he’ll break that record sometime in the near future.
Matthews’ goalscoring numbers suffered last season as he played through an undisclosed injury, netting just 33 on the year. This season, he’s reportedly back at full strength and aiming to find those big numbers again. While it’s taking him a bit of time to get back in his groove, if he can find his scoring touch soon, it might just be weeks until he break Sundin’s record. In the meantime, Matthews is also 11 points from passing Mitch Marner for fourth all-time in total career points amongst Maple Leafs, which should be an easy feat.
Joining Matthews on the all-time Leafs game-winning goals list is William Nylander, who has 47 up to this point in his Toronto career. If he can find four more this season, he’ll pass Ron Ellis for fifth on the list. John Tavares sits ninth with 40, behind George Armstrong and Darryl Sittler, who had 43 and 42 in their career, respectively.
Of course, the focus for Toronto’s offensive leaders is not on breaking records this season, as they look to build a stronger structure overall to compete deep into the playoffs. Still, if the points rack up while they’re doing that, it’s certainly a nice bonus.
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