Part of the Original Six and winners of 13 Stanley Cups, the Toronto Maple Leafs have regularly ranked among the very best teams competing in the NHL – even if the last championship season was 1966/67.
Once again, the Buds are amongst the top teams in the league, but would be considered dark horse contenders to land a 14th crown, being out at +1600 in the betting lines.
Expectations are always exceedingly high in Toronto. While some who currently skate for the franchise may one day reach all-time great status, for now, these are the players who set the bar for those expectations and now rank as the greatest players in Maple Leafs history.
1) Dave Keon
A member of the famed Legends Row outside the Air Canada Centre, Dave Keon is invariably upheld as the epitome of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey.
The 5’9’’ center from Québec kicked off his playing career in Toronto for the St. Michael’s Buzzers in 1956 and broke into the Maple Leafs lines in 1960, going on to win the Calder Trophy that season.
In the end, Keon amassed 396 goals and 986 points in 1296 NHL games – 234 games of which were spent with the Hartford Whalers four years after departing the Buds for the WHA in 1975.
Keon’s defensive efforts and selflessness on the ice brought him the reverence of Toronto, with his efforts en route to his fourth and final Stanley Cup to claim the 1967 Conn Smythe Trophy being his most esteemed.
The legendary Bud was pivotal to Toronto building on the Chicago Black Hawks’ efforts in 1961 to uproot the Montréal Canadiens as the NHL’s all-conquering champions, winning three Cups in a row before the Habs wrangled back control.
2) Mats Sundin
Standing 6’5’’ and 240 lbs, Mats Sundin was an imposing force in the NHL, earning a reputation for being impossibly consistent and reliable season in and season out.
The Swedish center was picked first overall by the Québec Nordiques in 1989 but was traded to the Buds during the 1994 Draft in a blockbuster six-player and two first-rounder deal.
Sundin wouldn’t meet his tally of 114 points from his third season with the Nordiques while playing for Toronto, but his regular tally of 30-plus goals and 70-plus points brought him to the peak of the records.
As it stands, Sundin’s Toronto tally of 420 goals and 987 points in 981 games place the Swede atop the franchise’s all-time rankings for both goals and points.
3) Darryl Sittler
Ontario native Darryl Sittler was picked eighth overall by the Maple Leafs and paid back that faith with 12 seasons of consistently strong play, five seasons of over 90 points, and a final haul of 916 points in 844 games.
Named to the 100 Greatest NHL Players list in 2017, Sittler never quite got his mitts on the Stanley Cup, but he does hold a record that even Wayne Gretzky couldn’t close in on.
Against the Boston Bruins on February 7, 1976, Sittler put up six goals and four assists to set (and continue to hold) the record for the most points scored by one player in a single game.
The next closest to the Buds legend is a tally of eight, which has been achieved 14 times in NHL history – twice by Gretzky and three times by Mario Lemieux.
4) Börje Salming
Stepping away from Toronto’s incredible collection of world-class forwards, from the blueline, Börje Salming spent all but one of his 17-season career as a Maple Leaf, and in doing so, became the franchise’s assists leader with 620.
The Swede’s time with the Buds ended with him collecting 148 goals and 768 points in 1,099 games as well as a mighty haul of 1,292 penalty minutes and a +150 rating – which only trails Tim Horton’s +151.
Salming was one of the first true NHL greats to hail from Europe. A regular Norris Trophy finalist, if it wasn’t for the likes of Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, and Larry Robinson, he likely would have won the honour multiple times.
Even so, Toronto’s star Swede did get called up to the all-star teams six times and had his No. 21 shirt retired by the Maple Leafs in 2016.
5) Teeder Kennedy
A career Maple Leaf, Ted “Teeder” Kennedy played 14 years in the NHL and led the Buds out as the team captain for eight of those seasons.
His illustrious career includes five Stanley Cup triumphs – a milestone that he was the joint-first player to meet – 231 goals, 560 points, and 432 penalty minutes in 696 regular season games, with an extra 60 points in 78 postseason games.
Kennedy wasn’t the most skilful player on the puck, but his ability to pick out a key pass and grind away on the forecheck gave the Buds a reliable battering ram into the offensive end that’d build from the defensive focus of the team at the time.
He was the kind of player who more subtly makes a Cup-winning team. Kennedy wouldn’t be tallying the most goals, but his fierce forechecking is what the NHL betting favourites will hope for from their supporting cast in the playoffs this season.
As it stands, these five stand out as the five greatest players in Toronto Maple Leafs history, but there were several contenders for a place on this list, and if they stick with the Buds, a couple of current stars could land here.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to Alamy*
