As they move into the post-Mitch Marner era, the Toronto Maple Leafs need a big year out of star center and captain Auston Matthews.

The 28-year-old posted only 33 goals in 67 games last season, the lowest total in that department in his nine-year NHL career. But if you watched Matthews on a consistent basis in his career, it was clear something wasn’t quite right.

Indeed, all season long, pinpoint goals Matthews had made with consistency in his first eight seasons as a Maple Leaf seemed off. The one-timers that looked so effortless for him looked…well, like an effort for him.

As we’ve since learned, Matthews had not been himself for good reason – namely, he’d been playing with a significant upper-body injury. We still don’t know publicly exactly what that injury is/was, but suffice to say it was significant enough to merit the in-season trip Matthews took to Germany to have it examined by a specialist.  

“I don’t need to get into the specifics of stuff, but I got injured in training camp, wasn’t feeling great through the first month of the season,” Matthews said at last year’s season-end availability. “There were some good stretches where I felt good. There were some stretches where I didn’t feel very good.”

Now, he claims he's healthy and ready to put it all behind him, focusing on the 2025-26 season.

“Health-wise, I’m feeling really good. I had a good summer. I did a lot of things that put me in a position to come into training camp feeling really good. So I’m really happy about that,” Matthews said prior to training camp.

With Marner’s playmaking skills now gone from Leafs Land, the Maple Leafs will need their current stars to contribute a little more than they did before. That certainly goes for Matthews. But here’s some reassuring news for Leafs fans: even in an off-year last season, Matthews still produced 45 assists – the second-highest total of his career, just one marker behind his 46-assist performance from 2021-22. Matthews still managed a sizeable contribution. 

Remember, this is a player who is still two years away from 30 years old. Matthews is in his prime, and in the current pre-season, he’s generated two goals in two games. He’s not going to be a guarantee to flirt with 70 goals, but Matthews has to lead the Leafs in other ways. He needs to lead them in the dressing room. He needs to be more responsible for the group. Most of all, he has to help the Leafs out of the second round of the playoffs – preferably, far beyond that point as well.

You can’t make Maple Leafs fans forget Marner. But Matthews can remind Leafs fans exactly what they still have around in Matthews – the best goal-scorer on the planet, a Hart Trophy winner as the NHL’s regular-season most valuable player, and the respect of every team’s defense. That counts for something. That should earn you the benefit of the doubt, at least, until you put together too many sub-par years in a row. 

That hasn’t happened to Matthews. He hasn’t forgotten how to score goals or what it takes to be truly elite, and this coming season will give Matthews every opportunity to show the league, his teammates and Leafs Nation that he’s still one of the very best of the very best.

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