The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to hit multiple milestones this season, but three are very significant.
For a franchise that is over 100 years old, milestones should not be taken lightly and should always be celebrated. However, the funny thing about the Leafs history is that it’s really not that strong. Sure, there have been some fantastic players who have played for this organization, but when it comes to first-ballot Hall-of-Famer’s from the post Original Six Era (after 1967), there aren’t many that we can think of.
Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmour, Borje Salming, Darryl Sittler, Ed Belfour and Curtis Joseph are a few names that found their way to the Hall of Fame, but no more than two of them played on the same roster together. This current roster has four potential Hall of Famer’s, as William Nylander, John Tavares, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner could all find their way there one day.
A Stanley Cup championship, ending a drought since 1967, would make all of four of them Hall of Fame worthy, however their individual achievements thus far could be good enough to garner that honor and I don’t think fans realize that. I personally think this fanbase takes it for granted and it’s sad to see.
Whatever happened to enjoying the process more than the result? Isn’t that hard-work and fight for a championship the best part, instead of ultimately celebrating on the top of a mountain? We need to remember that championships happen once in a lifetime, so every year that it doesn’t happen, we shouldn’t lose our minds, but instead should be thankful for the players we have.
Speaking of which, here are three incredible milestones that three potential future Hall of Famer’s should achieve this year.
Top 3 Milestones Leafs Could Achieve This Season
No. 1: John Tavares – 60 Points Away From 1,100 Points
Tavares is 60 points away from reaching 1,100 points and only has one season where he recorded less than 60 points, so I’d expect him to hit this again. Not only do I expect him to hit it, but I expect him to blow past it and be back to the point-per-game player we remember.
Is Tavares the most underrated superstar of the past decade? The former No. 1 overall pick hasn’t had the playoff success that other high-end picks near his age (Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos) have, but he’s been incredibly consistent. A leader, on and off the ice, Tavares averages 30 goals per year and should be celebrated for joing the organization in 2018.
Sure, the team hasn’t quite lived up to the playoff expectation, but Tavares has been apart of some magical memories, including an overtime goal in Game 6 of the First Round in 2023 to send the Tampa Bay Lightning packing. That was the biggest moment this team has had since 2004, so that goal should be everything we need to know about him.
There have only been 66 players in NHL history who have scored 1,100 or more points, so if he can achieve that number, he should be well on his way to a Hall of Fame career. Hopefully he’s the first Leafs captain to lift a Stanley Cup since 1967, but we can’t bank on that.
No. 2: Auston Matthews – 53 Goals Away From Breaking Mats Sundin’s All-Time Record
Can you believe that we’re entering Year 9 of the Auston Matthews era in Toronto? It feels like yesterday that he scored four goals to open up his career with the Leafs and he essentially hasn’t stopped scoring since that first game.
The craziest thing about Matthews most likely breaking Sundin’s record this year is that he’s going to do it in a minimum of 337 less games. Achieving this record in four less season’s is amazing, considering the fact that Sundin scored 30-plus goals ten times in his Leafs career. Sundin was as consistent as anyone over his tenure, but is going to get lapped by Matthews.
Matthews is only 22 goals away from No. 2, Darryl Sittler, so he should be able to pass him by December, but he’ll have his eyes on Sundin all season. I know that Matthews has only scored 50 goals twice in his career, but over the past four year’s, he’s scoring at a 0.75 goals per game rate, so if he plays every game this year and keeps that pace, he’d score 61 goals next year, breaking Sundin’s record easily.
No. 3: Mitch Marner – 61 Points Away From 700 Career Points
Say what you want about Mitch Marner, but he’s only 61 points away from 700 career points, and don’t be shocked if he’s closer to 750 than 700 by year’s end. I’ve been on the fence about Marner for the last year, but I’ve came to the conclusion that every bad thing I’ve said about him is a mistake and he’s one of the best forwards this team has ever seen.
The Robin to Matthews’ Batman, Marner has pushed through his size issues and delivered year-after-year. Not only is he is an elite winger, and arguably the best right-winger in hockey, but he’s an unbelievably talented defensive winger, who is deadly on the power-play and penalty-kill.
Only five players have recorded 700 or more career points in Leafs history, so reaching this milestone will be an incredible achievement for Marner. Also, since we can’t talk about Marner without talking about Matthews, we should mention that Matthews will also most likely hit this milestone as well, as he’s only 51 points away from the achievement as well. Therefore, we should have seven players in Leafs history with this achievement by year’s end.
We know that Matthews is a generational talent but Marner should get more credit for this achievement as well. Marner is set to join five former Leafs, who all have thier number retired: Mats Sundin, Darryl Sittler, Dave Keon, Borje Salming and George Armstrong.
Whether you want to believe it or not, when it’s all set and done, Marner’s jersey will be retired once his career is finished and he’ll be inducted right beside Matthews, because their impact on this team is the reason they’ve been a playoff team for the past eight years.
If the Leafs have any chance to win a Stanley Cup soon, they’ll have a much better opportunity of doing it with Marner on the roster, than without, so they better keep this tandem together, as both Marner and Matthews will end their career’s as the Leafs all-time goal scorers and point getter’s once they’re retired.
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