Matthews becomes fastest U.S.-born player to score 50 goals in season

Auston Matthews scored his 50th goal of the season Wednesday, accomplishing the feat faster than any NHL player born in the United States.

Playing his 54th game of the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs center scored a power-play goal at 5:01 of the first period against the Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona, to set the mark. His wrist shot from the right face-off circle gave Toronto a 2-0 lead.

Matthews broke his own record of 50 goals in 62 games, which was also held by Kevin Stevens of the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins.

Matthews also became the fastest active player in the NHL to hit the mark, breaking the record of 61 games set by Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers last season.

Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record as the fastest player to 50 goals. He did it in 39 games for the Oilers in 1981-82.

Matthews, who grew up a Coyotes fan in Scottsdale, Arizona, about 5 miles from the arena in Tempe, reached the 50-goal milestone for the second time in three seasons (60 goals in 2021-22). He is the ninth-fastest player to reach 50 goals over the past 35 seasons and fourth active player with multiple 50-goal seasons, joining Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (nine), Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers (three) and Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning (two).

The No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Matthews has 349 goals in 535 games, an average of 0.65 per game, the seventh-highest in NHL history (minimum 100 games). He has scored at least 34 goals in each of his eight seasons with the Maple Leafs, including at least 40 six times.

The 26-year-old leads the League in goals since entering the NHL and is on pace to score at least 70 goals this season, something that has been done 14 times in NHL history, most recently in 1992-93, when Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny each scored 76. He has scored eight goals in his past four games, including a hat trick in a 4-3 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, and another in a 9-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. He also scored in a 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

Matthews, a two-time winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy as the NHL’s leading goal-scorer (41 in 2020-21; 60 in 2021-22), has 17 goals in his past 14 games and leads the League with six hat tricks this season. The single-season record is 10, done twice by Gretzky (1981-82, 1983-4).