The Harold Ballard era still haunts Maple Leafs fans to this day, but Auston Matthews’ arrival has shifted the franchise from disappointing to full of potential.
When Ballard took over as majority owner in 1972, the Maple Leafs gained an owner who was fiercely passionate about his team—to their detriment at times. Often micromanaging and extremely hands-on, his reputation around Leafs Nation remains one that could be considered cantankerous at best. Though the team saw some measure of playoff success, reaching the Division Finals twice (when the NHL used the Adams and Norris Divisions within the Prince of Wales and Clarence Campbell Conferences) and making the postseason 13 times during Ballard’s tenure, they never won the Stanley Cup. Their last championship still dates to 1967.
Matthews pulled the Maple Leafs out of a slump that lasted decades. From the 1972-73 season through the 2015-16 season—43 seasons of play, excluding the cancelled 2004-05 lockout year—the Toronto Maple Leafs’ combined regular-season record stood at 1,426-1,541-323-128 (W-L-T-OTL) in 3,418 games. That equates to only a 41.7% winning percentage. Their postseason mark over that span was 105-127 in 232 games, or a 45.2% winning percentage. The picture is one of a team that consistently failed to meet expectations across more than four decades.
Since Auston Matthews arrived in 2016-17, the Maple Leafs have posted a 440-250-92 record in 782 games—a far more respectable 56.3% regular-season win percentage. They finished no lower than third place in all but the most recent season and made the playoffs nine straight years. That run eclipses their previous stretch of eight consecutive postseason appearances from 1974 to 1981. Much like that earlier era, sustained playoff success has remained elusive. Yet Matthews did not simply inherit the same problems; he helped move the franchise into a period defined by tangible regular-season achievement and renewed hope, even without a Stanley Cup.
The Matthews era changed expectations even without winning Lord Stanley. For years, fans rarely knew what they were getting. Those who remembered the 1970s and 1980s could reasonably expect postseason hockey but little more. The generation that endured 2005-06 through 2015-16 experienced something closer to consistent misery. Now there is at least a measure of stability. Setting aside last season as an outlier, the Maple Leafs have reached the playoffs nearly a decade straight while finishing in the top three with regularity and featuring a core of superstar talent. Failure is no longer defined by missing the postseason entirely or enduring long stretches of losing; it is measured against the higher bar of advancing past the second round.
Matthews quickly became the franchise cornerstone. He has already broken franchise records, surpassing Mats Sundin for the all-time goal-scoring lead with 421. Fans came to expect that he would arrive each season with the potential to score 40-plus goals while playing alongside consistently productive stars such as John Tavares and Mitch Marner. The conversation shifted from “maybe they’ll make it” to “maybe this is the year.”
Last season may have made the Maple Leafs look worse than their recent trajectory suggested. But measured against the long stretch that preceded him, what Auston Matthews has delivered is clear: he helped transform the franchise into a legitimate contender and produced its strongest sustained stretch of success in more than 50 years.