The Maple Leafs last had a 50-goal scorer 28 years ago.

Mats Sundin never got there — not all that close, really, topping out at 41. Neither did Phil Kessel (37), Doug Gilmour (32) or Wendel Clark (46). Current captain John Tavares was close in his first season as a Leaf (47), but few others have sniffed that mark.

In fact, over the first 104 years of franchise history, only three players scored 50 goals in a Leafs uniform in a single season: Dave Andreychuk, the last to do so, in 1994; Gary Leeman in 1990; and Rick Vaive, three times in the early 1980s.

Auston Matthews needed just 62 games to become the fourth to join that elusive group Thursday night in a 7-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets. It was the fastest 50-goal season in 26 years, dating back to Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Mogilny and Petr Bondra, who all accomplished the feat in 1995-96.

“It is important to acknowledge that it’s a pretty special thing,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I mean, it’s a long time since a Leaf has scored 50. That in itself is special. There’s been a lot of great players that have played here.”

“I don’t know if I ever really envisioned it being an empty-netter goal,” Matthews said of No. 50, “but I’ll take it.”

With five more goals, Matthews will take over the Leafs’ single-season franchise record from Vaive, a mark that has stood for 40 years.

That record, however, was compiled in 1981-82, the highest-scoring season in modern NHL history. Vaive produced 0.70 goals per game in an era when the average night consisted of teams combining for 8.02 goals per game. (Ten players scored 50 that season, including Wayne Gretzky, who had 92.)