teemu selanne scored the most goals as a rookie in the nhl.
who scored the most goals as a rookie in the nhl?
teemu selanne
entering the 2013–14 season, the 20th anniversary of the franchise, it was announced that teemu selanne would be playing in his final nhl season. in the off-season, star forward bobby ryan was traded to the ottawa senators in exchange for forwards jakob silfverberg, stefan noesen and ottawa's first-round pick in the 2014 nhl entry draft, and the ducks also signed defenseman mark fistric, center mathieu perreault and a returning dustin penner. despite a bad start suffering a 6–1 mauling at the hands of the colorado avalanche, the ducks followed the opener with seven-straight wins, a run which was repeated and surpassed twice more during the season, including a franchise-record setting ten consecutive wins from december 6 to 28, 2013. at one point of the season, the ducks won 18 of 19 games, the longest run of one-loss play in the nhl for 45 years. a 9–1 victory over the vancouver canucks on january 15 saw anaheim establish a 20–0–2 record at the honda center, which matched the longest season-opening home points streak in 34 years, as well as setting a franchise-record for goals scored in a game (9), and powerplay goals scored in a game (6). dustin penner was eventually traded to the washington capitals, and prior to the nhl trade deadline, the ducks acquired veteran defenseman stephane robidas from the dallas stars. behind a hart trophy-caliber season from club captain ryan getzlaf, solid depth scoring, a steady if unspectacular defence and solid goaltending in the form of jonas hiller and rookie frederik andersen, many felt that the ducks were primed to be a top contender for the stanley cup.
anaheim ducks
matthews made his nhl debut in the maple leafs' first game of the season on october 12, 2016, against the ottawa senators. he scored four goals in the game, all against craig anderson. this was the first time in modern nhl history a player scored four goals in his debut; previously, joe malone and harry hyland scored five goals each in their nhl debuts on december 19, 1917 (the first game in the history of the nhl). four others had scored three goals since then. matthews' jersey would go on sale following his debut, where it quickly became the highest-selling jersey in the nhl. two months later, in the nhl centennial classic against the detroit red wings, matthews scored the game-winning goal in overtime, securing a 5–4 victory for the maple leafs. he was named nhl's rookie of the month for december after leading all rookies with 8 goals and 12 points in 12 games. on january 10, 2017, matthews was the only leafs player selected to participate in the 2017 nhl all-star game. on march 28, 2017, matthews scored his 35th goal of the season, surpassing wendel clark's previous record for most goals in a season (34) by a leafs' rookie. april 3 saw matthews score his 39th goal and 67th point, breaking the franchise record for most points in a season, as well as the record for most goals by an american-born rookie. a few days later, he scored his 40th goal of the season, becoming the second rookie since the 2004–05 lockout to reach the milestone and the fourth teenager in nhl history to do so. he finished the year with 40 goals, second-most in the nhl. matthews' play assisted the maple leafs in making the stanley cup playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2004, where the team played the top-seeded washington capitals in the first round. after going pointless in the first two games of the series, matthews scored in each of the last four games as the team was eliminated in six games by the capitals. his four consecutive games with a goal marked the first time since 1986 where a teenager scored in four straight playoff games, when wendel clark did it, also with toronto. matthews was also the only nhl rookie since teemu selänne in 1992–93 to record at least one shot on goal in all 82 regular season games. in recognition for his historic accomplishments throughout the year, matthews was awarded the calder memorial trophy as the nhl's top rookie, with 164 of 167 first-place votes. he was the first maple leafs' rookie to receive the trophy in 50 years after brit selby in 1966.
auston matthews