William Nylander 300 Goals: Past Vaive, Into Sixth on the Leafs' List

William Nylander 300 goals: the milestone, in his 763rd game

William Nylander has 300 goals in the NHL. The Maple Leafs winger reached the mark with an empty-net goal at 17:56 of the third period in Toronto's 7-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 24, his second goal of the night after a power-play one-timer earlier in the period. It came in his 763rd regular-season game, every one of them in a Maple Leafs sweater.

The goal moved Nylander past Rick Vaive and into sixth place on the franchise's all-time goals list. Vaive finished his Toronto career with 299. Only five players have scored more goals for the Leafs, and one of them, Auston Matthews, is still his teammate.

Nylander, 30, also became the fourth-fastest Swedish player in NHL history to reach 300, and the fourth-fastest player in Leafs history, according to TSN. For a player whose commitment and consistency were questioned for years, the numbers have settled that argument.

Where he ranks in Leafs history

The franchise goals list is top-heavy. Matthews passed Mats Sundin for first place during the 2025-26 season and has kept adding to his lead. Behind the top four is a big gap, and Nylander has now closed in on the fifth spot.

Ellis is 32 goals away. Nylander strung together seasons of 40, 40 and 45 goals from 2022-23 to 2024-25, so passing Ellis this season is realistic if he stays healthy in an 84-game schedule. Keon at 365 is a 2027-28 conversation. Sittler and Sundin are further out, though Nylander's contract runs through 2031-32, which gives him the runway to get there.

For a full look at where his points total stands, see our earlier piece on Nylander passing 700 points. With his two goals in Edmonton he now has 709 career regular-season points.

The Swedish company he keeps

Three Swedes reached 300 faster than Nylander, according to the game-night research published with the milestone: Tomas Sandstrom in 675 games, Mats Sundin in 698 and Filip Forsberg in 742. Nylander needed 763.

The Sundin comparison has a nice symmetry. Sundin, now a senior executive adviser to the Leafs, is the obvious measuring stick for any Swedish star in Toronto. Sundin had the bigger peak as a centre and captain. Nylander's case rests on durability and value: he has spent his entire career in one organization and has become steadily better since his first full season.

There is one more wrinkle. Nylander was born in Calgary on May 1, 1996, while his father Michael played for the Flames, and he represents Sweden internationally. The Leafs' next game is in Calgary on Oct. 26.

Why the contract looks better every month

Nylander signed his eight-year extension in January 2024, and it carries an $11.5 million cap hit through 2031-32 with a no-move clause, per our Leafs contracts sheet. At the time, critics said Toronto had paid too much to a winger who had not yet produced a dominant playoff run.

Look at it now. The 2026-27 salary cap is $104 million, which means Nylander's deal takes up roughly 11 per cent of the cap. When it was signed, the cap was $83.5 million, and the same number was closer to 14 per cent. The cap has caught up to the contract, and Nylander has kept producing at or above the level he was paid for.

Compare that with the open market. Wingers scoring 40-plus goals with his skating and puck carrying would command far more than $11.5 million as free agents in a $104 million league. Toronto has one of the best value deals among elite wingers, and it will look better each year the cap rises.

What 300 says about his game in 2026-27

Nylander entered the Edmonton game with six goals and 10 assists through 12 games. The two goals push him to eight in 13. He has kept producing through a stretch where the Leafs have been without John Tavares at centre and have shuffled their top six to cover for it.

His line in the practice report before Edmonton had him with Kirill Marchenko and Nick Paul, and the early returns on the Marchenko trade look good partly because Nylander's ability to carry the puck through the neutral zone gives Marchenko space to shoot. The power-play goal against Edmonton was classic Nylander: a one-timer from the left circle, under the blocker of Tristan Jarry.

That shot is why the 50-goal question keeps coming up. In an 84-game season, eight goals in 13 games is a pace in the low 50s. The pace will regress, but a career high is within reach.

The playoff numbers back it up

The knock on Nylander for most of his career was the same knock applied to the whole Matthews-era core: the regular season was fine, the spring was not. His own numbers do not support that argument. He has 26 goals and 58 points in 62 career playoff games, according to the career totals published with the milestone.

Run the rates side by side. Three hundred goals in 763 regular-season games works out to about 0.39 goals per game. Twenty-six in 62 playoff games is about 0.42. His points rate holds up too: 709 in 763 in the regular season is 0.93 per game, and 58 in 62 in the playoffs is 0.94. Playoff hockey is tighter and the goalies are better, and Nylander has produced at the same rate or slightly higher anyway.

The Leafs have not won enough in the spring. Nylander is not the reason. Toronto drafted him eighth overall in 2014, and more than a decade later he remains one of the few players from that era whose playoff record holds up to scrutiny.

Our take: the most underrated great Leaf of his era

Nylander spent years as the player Leafs fans argued about. The 2018 contract standoff, the playoff exits, the debates about his defensive effort. Through all of it, he kept scoring, kept staying in the lineup and kept getting better. Three hundred goals in 763 games, all for one team, is a Hall of Fame-adjacent pace for a winger, even if he is not there yet.

Matthews will finish as the greatest goal scorer in franchise history. Nylander has a real chance to finish second or third, which would put him above Sundin, Sittler and Keon on the one list that is hardest to argue with. If that happens on an $11.5 million cap hit in a $104 million league, it will rank as one of the best contracts the franchise ever signed.

What's next

The next markers are 750 career points and Ellis at 332 goals. Nylander's next chance to add to the total comes against the Flames in his birthplace on Monday, Oct. 26. Follow every Leaf's numbers on our players page, and see what else is coming in our 2026-27 milestones tracker.