Can Auston Matthews score 70 goals this season?

It’s been a long time since an NHL player has scored 70 goals in a single season. In fact, you’d have to go back 30 years to find the last time it happened, as the 1992-93 season saw both the Buffalo Sabres’ Alexander Mogilny and the Winnipeg Jets’ Teemu Selanne each score 76 that year, with the latter doing so in their rookie season.

However, we may be in the midst of seeing it happen again. Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews is currently on pace for 75 this season heading into the holiday break, largely in part to his recent streak of seven straight with a goal, and eight of his last nine, and six of those eight games being multi-goal games. After Connor McDavid became the first player since 1996 to put up more than 150 points in a season last year, who’s to say that Matthews can’t do a similar type of feat as the league’s best goal-scorer.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli were in a giving mood this holiday season, and decided to hand out stocking stuffers to players and teams in the NHL, including a gift that they think may help Matthews’ 70-goal campaign.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll give you my first stocking stuffer: it’s health for Auston Matthews. I want to see this guy score 70 goals. I like seeing great players do things that we don’t see that often, and scoring 70 goals would be right up there in my opinion with Connor McDavid popping home 150 points in a season. You don’t see this kind of stuff happen. In my opinion, the only thing stopping Matthews from hitting 70 is health, so I would love to gift him health.

Frank Seravalli: I mean, you’re a generous guy, so I understand it. Also, the nice thing about that gift is you could give it to all 32 teams. I’m sure all 32 teams would like to be healthy.

Auston Matthews to score 70? Sign me up! He’s on pace for [75] and when you look at where he’s at, he’s already missed one, and he’s still on pace for [75], you can’t miss five or 10 in order to get there. It just won’t happen.

You can watch the full episode here…