TORONTO — Word started to spread about Auston Matthews before the season began.

The Toronto Maple Leafs centre scored 74 goals in 144 games and then set about reworking the fundamental skills that had already turned him into one of the best in the world. It was like going under the hood of a Porsche in search of more power and performance.

And the results were quickly evident to those who have been watching him closely.

“He’s skating at another level,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said a handful of days into September’s training camp.

“I’ve skated with him before many times, but seeing him [at the Darryl Belfry skills camp in late August] I knew he was going to have a big year,” Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin told Sportsnet recently. “He looked two inches taller. I don’t know what he was doing or what. He looks huge.”

It wasn’t an optical illusion.

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Matthews had gone to work on the mechanics of his skating stride, studying video and travelling to Toronto for on-ice sessions with skating coach Barb Underhill. There was a particular focus on body posture and remaining upright in an effort to maximize the explosiveness from his six-foot-three frame by staying centred directly above his skates.

Matthews was chasing the marginal gains that could be achieved by getting one quick step on a defender. It’s the only window someone with his unique ability to fire the puck in-stride needs to make an elite offensive play.

Perhaps it should be no surprise, then, that he torched the NHL for the first three weeks of the season. Matthews came out like a wrecking ball — stopped only by a jarring hit from Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba on Oct. 27 that forced him to sit out a month with a left shoulder injury.

He’s been chasing the ghost of his October self ever since, pointing out that his conditioning was hurt by a 14-game layoff because “it’s tough to get in game shape without playing games.”

“Just skating, playing a full 60 minutes, feeling good with your legs and your body and the timing and everything,” Matthews said Wednesday of the challenges posed by this period of readjustment. “It takes a bit of time to get back, but when it does you continually

start to feel more and more like yourself.”

It might seem a bit absurd to focus on his “struggle” to get up to speed given that Matthews had scored seven times in nine games heading into Thursday’s visit by Florida. Remember that he started the year with 10 goals in 10 and a half games before getting injured, giving him the quietest 17-in-20 stretch in Leafs history.

But production aside, this has been a process.

There have been glimpses of his explosive game-breaking ability, such as the overtime winner in Buffalo on Dec. 4 at the end of a 77-second shift, but Matthews acknowledges that he’s had to battle through stretches of play where he hasn’t felt like himself since the Nov. 28 return against San Jose.

Babcock saw the biggest difference in the defensive zone on shifts where Matthews had to engage in puck battles. There wasn’t the same push he had before. That explains why the coach was so encouraged by his performance in last Thursday’s visit to Tampa, where he and

linemates Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen delivered a dominant possession game against the NHL’s top team.

“It was the first time he’s sailed out of the D-zone [since returning],” said Babcock. “In order to sail out the D-zone, you’ve got to play 200 feet, you’ve got to get back there and be available and go.

“We’ll know more here in the next little bit. Just by talking to our [sports] science people and going through it, it should be time here pretty close now. So when you look at that, it takes a chunk of time to get your legs back.”

The indicators continue to trend in an encouraging direction, including the goal and assist Matthews created Tuesday in New Jersey on plays where he was leading the rush and driving the net.

He’d still like to see his line “dominate” opponents more — although, it should be noted, that the Johnsson-Matthews-Kapanen trio has controlled 62.7 per cent of even-strength shot attempts during 64 minutes of PDO-enhanced dominance together, according to naturalstattrick.com.

Given that Matthews appears to be approaching full stride again, it’s clear that this could still be a special individual season because he kept putting up numbers while working his way back. Even though we can’t expect him to continue scoring on 26.2 per cent of shots, it’s pretty incredible that he remains on pace for 58 goals and 99 points despite missing the 14 games due to injury.

You’d have to think the 40-goal plateau remains within reach. He’d top that by scoring at the same .55 goals-per-game pace he’s averaged throughout his NHL career. Fifty is a longshot, but it can’t be ruled out entirely.

“If he gets one little ray of sunlight then he’s taking advantage of it,” said Larkin. “The way he thinks, he’s always attacking, he’s always looking for chances to switch defenders — get the defenders off their matchup. He’s smart. He’s always thinking a step ahead in the offensive zone.

“He uses his body better than anyone too.”

In addition to the extra skating work over the summer, Matthews reimagined the other-worldly release on his shot during sessions with Belfry. That underscores his drive for greatness.

“I wouldn’t call him a tinkerer, but he’s trying to pick up dollars and pennies,” former teammate Connor Carrick, another Belfry camp attendee, said earlier this year. “He wants every goal off the rush where he’s got the spectacular shot — toe drag to the right, shoot, score. He wants all of those, 15 of those. But he also wants to pick up the two or three that are stopping at the net, he wants to pick up the two or three that are shot/pass/tips because he’s in a good spot.

“He wants the possession numbers to be better, where he works on the track and works on stripping and going. I think the career today is a little bit more curated than born. That’s fun. That’s how it should be.”

If there is one common thread to be pulled from those who have been in the garage while Matthews finetunes the components of his game, it’s that every little detail matters. He’s acutely aware of where everything is at.

When asked this week if he feels like he’s reaping the benefits of his summer sessions despite the recent injury layoff, Matthews smiled.

“Absolutely,” he said.