Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews on Saturday broke a salary cap-era record set close to 20 years ago by a former San Jose Sharks winger.
Matthews recorded his sixth hat-trick of the season, giving the San Ramon native a league-high 48 goals on the season in just 52 games. Matthews added two assists for a career-high five points as Toronto walloped the Ducks 9-2.
Matthews’ six hat tricks are the most in a season since 1995-96, when Mario Lemieux had six for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“It’s hard to put into words to be in the same sentence as a guy like (Lemieux), so that’s all I’ll say about it,” Matthews told reporters, “but it’s definitely pretty cool.”
Matthews opened the scoring at the 3:41 mark of the first period, then added two goals in the second as the Maple Leafs opened up a 7-1 lead.
For Matthews, it was his 13th career hat trick, tying him with Pat LaFontaine for most hat tricks in one season by a U.S.-born player.
Goalie Lukas Dostal started the game for Anaheim but allowed four goals on 18 shots. At the start of the second period, Dostal was replaced by John Gibson, who gave up four goals on nine shots as Toronto took an 8-1 lead. Gibson ended up making nine saves on 14 shots.
Matthews also had a hat-trick on Thursday night as the Maple Leafs beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3. All three of Matthews’ goals in that game came in the second period.
“It’s exceptional. I’ve kind of gone through the phase where you’re in awe of Auston, but this seems to be a new standard for himself,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “To have a hat trick and then follow it up again, which as we know is not the first time he’s done this, it’s pretty remarkable.”
Matthews opened the season in October with hat tricks in back-to-back games against Montreal and Minnesota, then added one in November against Buffalo and one in January against Calgary.
Auston Matthews has a hat trick. Also the sky is blue. pic.twitter.com/PRLgZFU1TQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 18, 2024
Matthews has now passed Jonathan Cheechoo’s salary cap-era record of five, set during the 2005-2006 season. Cheechoo had 56 goals that season – still a Sharks single-season record — to win the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal-scorer.
Not surprisingly, all five of Cheechoo’s hat tricks that season came after the Sharks acquired Joe Thornton from the Boston Bruins on Nov. 30, 2005. Three of Cheechoo’s hat tricks came against the then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, with others coming against the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Los Angeles Kings.
Also, all eight of Cheechoo’s two-goal games that season came after the trade.
The NHL’s overall record for hat-tricks in a season is 10, set twice by Wayne Gretzky, first in 1981-82 and then in 1983-84.
The NHL first implemented a salary cap before the 2005-06 season. Following a bitter 301-day lockout that wiped out all of 2004-05, the league and the NHL Players’ Association finally came to terms on a collective bargaining agreement that tied the salary cap to hockey-related revenue.
The first cap in 2005-06 was $39 million and the present cap is $83.5 million.
