It was a record set only a couple of months ago when Mitch Marner became the fastest player in Toronto Maple Leafs’ history to reach 700 points, doing it in 622 regular season games. But records are meant to be broken and on Sunday afternoon, Auston Matthews topped his teammate’s efforts by recording his 700th career NHL point in just his 607th career NHL game.
With his assist on William Nylander’s overtime goal, Auston Matthews recorded his 700th point of his career.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) March 2, 2025
Matthews, who played just over 21 minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Maple Leafs’ 6-5 overtime win, finished the game with six shots. More importantly, however, he tallied a goal and assist on his way to setting a franchise record as the fastest player to 700 points.
The milestone mark came on the overtime winner, as Matthews notched his 29th assist of the season on William Nylander’s game-winning goal. The goal came just one minute into the overtime frame and landed the Maple Leafs their fifth straight win.
As for Matthews, he becomes just the seventh player in franchise history to reach the 700-point milestone, joining George Armstrong (713), Marner (714), Börje Salming (768), Dave Keon (858), Darryl Sittler (916) and Mats Sundin (987), and just the second active player to do so. He’s also the only player taken in the 2016 NHL Draft to have reached the 700-point mark.
It has been a rather up and down campaign for the Maple Leafs’ captain who was dealing with a nagging injury early on in the season, however, he still has 22 goals and 51 points in 45 games for the Maple Leafs who sit first in the Atlantic Division. Overall, the 27-year-old has 390 goals and 310 assists in 607 career NHL regular season games and becomes the 278th player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
With a strong finish to the season, Matthews could make a dent in the next 100 points and close in on the 800-point plateau come next season. For now, surely Matthews isn’t paying close attention to the individual milestones as he’ll be looking to add to his legacy with the Maple Leafs when the NHL playoffs kick off this spring.
