TORONTO — Auston Matthews gets back to his stall in the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room and looks over at Max Domi. They both flash big grins, but say nothing.

Left unsaid is the history Matthews is on the verge of making. A hat trick (career goals No. 417, 418, and 419) in a thrilling comeback win for the Leafs has him only one goal from matching Mats Sundin (420) for the most in franchise history. Two more, and he’ll stand alone atop the record books.

“It’s special just to be in the same sentence as him,” Matthews said of Sundin. “When that moment comes, it’ll be really cool. It’s just very humbling, I think.”

Asked afterward whether he knew where his linemate and close buddy sits in the chase for the record owned by Sundin, someone his dad once played alongside and whom he grew up idolizing, Domi said, “I do” and grinned.

It wasn’t something he and Matthews had ever addressed, though.

“You don’t talk about that stuff,” Domi said in a one-on-one conversation with The Athletic. “Auston’s one of my closest friends. To see him step in like that and do unbelievable things is one thing. But to be able to (see him) have the potential to break the record of your childhood hero, it’s another level.”

Matthews’ prowess in front of the net is justly famous — “He’s one of the greatest goal scorers of all time,” Domi said — but he has struggled to score like it this season.

His latest performance, in which he beat Winnipeg Jets backup Eric Comrie three times and added an assist for his first 4-point night of the season, only raises the question that’s been asked over and over this season: Is Matthews back, for real? Or was this just another glimmer of the megastar he once was?

A three-time winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy, Matthews entered the night far, far back in the scoring leaderboard and not even in the conversation for postseason honours, tied for 39th in the NHL with 15 goals in 33 games. For context, he once scored 15 goals over 11 December games during his record-breaking 69-goal 2023-24 season. He had 18 multi-goal games that year, including six hat tricks.

That ability, to explode for a flurry of goals, is one of the things that’s been missing this season (and last season as well). Before the fireworks that kicked off 2026, Matthews had put together only one multi-goal game. That game was in October and saw Matthews score his second of the game into an empty net.

Which is why Thursday’s performance feels significant. It was Matthews’ first hat trick of the season, for one thing. And the goals he scored all had that vintage Matthews feel.

Matthews got the first one started with the kind of defensive acumen that has earned him regular Selke Trophy votes. The Leafs captain picked the puck off Gabriel Vilardi in the defensive zone, turned on the jets and chugged into the Winnipeg zone with the kind of power and speed that was once a hallmark of his game.

Then he handed the puck off to Domi and went for the net.