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Who Has Scored The Most Goals In A Single NHL Season?
NHL is all about scoring and offensive gameplay, but do you want to know who sits atop this offensive gameplay of scoring the most goals? Read more to know who has the most goals in a single season.
![Winnipeg Jets players shake hands with Colorado Avalanche players [Credit-Getty Images]](https://www.pinkvilla.com/images/2024-05/1398040252_winnipeg-jets-players-shake-hands-with-colorado-avalanche-players-following-a-6-3-defeat-in-game-five-of-the-first-round-of-the-2024-stanley-cup-playoffs-credit-getty-images-1.jpg "Winnipeg Jets players shake hands with Colorado Avalanche players [Credit-Getty Images]")
It has been over 30 years since an NHL player lighted the lamp at least 70 times in a season. Auston Matthews aims to alter that in 2024. Since entering the league in 2016-17, the Maple Leafs star has proven to be a dangerous sniper, capable of scaring goalies from all angles. Matthews has scored at least 30 goals each season and has hit 60 goals twice, including this year.
With the evolution of hockey since the turn of the century, the league no longer sees 70-goal scorers. Alex Ovechkin, the greatest scorer of this generation, came close, but his 2007-08 season concluded with 65 goals.
Matthews is a skater who can find twine at least 70 times every season. He has the opportunity to do something just eight other players in history have done, including hockey icons Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull.
Who has scored the most goals in a single NHL season?
Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record for the most goals scored in a single season. The four-time Stanley Cup champion leads the single-season scoring list with 92 goals in 1981-82. He is the only player to score at least 90 goals in a single season.
Gretzky also holds the record for the second-most goals in a season, scoring 87 in 1983-83. In all, 14 players have scored 70 goals. Gretzky achieved this four times, Brett Hull three times, and Mario Lemieux twice.
Gretzky is the greatest goal scorer in hockey history, but his assist numbers are even more incredible. He broke the NHL single-season assists record when he was 20 years old, dishing out 109 compared to Bobby Orr’s 102 from 1970-71. Gretzky, then, set a new precedent in four of the next five seasons, culminating with 163 assists in 1985-86.
In all, Gretzky surpassed 100 assists 11 times. Mario Lemieux and Orr were the only other players in the 100-assist club until McDavid and Kucherov reached the milestone this season.
Auston Matthews came close to earning 70 goals, but his team was eliminated before the playoffs by the Boston Bruins. He has 69 goals in 78 games in the season (2023-24), as of April 12. That means the Toronto center is averaging 0.87 goals per game this season, which is an impressive rate for any player. Matthews has 368 goals in 560 games.
Let’s look back at the most recent 70-goal-scoring season by a player
The last time a player lit up the light was during the 1992-93 season when two players scored 70 goals. Teemu Selanne of the Jets and Alexander Mogilny of the Sabres each scored 76 goals that season.
No player has gotten close to 70 since then. The closest was Ovechkin in 2007-08 when he scored 65 goals. However, Matthews was on the verge of reaching 70 goals.
Read More: Who Is The Youngest NHL Captain To Win Stanley Cup?
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