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Marlies Season Opener; Top Maple Leafs Right Wingers Of All Time(Part I)

October 13, 2012, 4:29 PM ET [91 Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Toronto Marlies open their 2012-13 regular season this afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum against the Rochester Americans, the team that they eliminated in the first round of the Calder Cup Western Conference playoffs last season.

Ben Scrivens will start in net for Toronto and David Leggio is expected to get the start for Rochester.

The game marks the North American debut of Estonian born winger Leo Komarov, signed by the Maple Leafs last July, as well as the organizational debuts of Mike Kostka, former Lightning defenseman Paul Ranger and former Washington Capitals center Keith Aucoin.

The Amerks lineup includes former Canuck first rounder Cody Hodgson, who was traded to Buffalo at the trade deadline last season for Zack Kassian, as well as Marcus Foligno, who was a beast for the Sabres during their run for a playoff spot last season. It also includes former first rounders Mark Pysyk and Zemgus Girgensons.





Follow me on Twitter @mikeinbuffalo for updates during the game.

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The Maple Leafs have been in existence since 1917 and 825 players have played for Toronto in 94 years, which makes choosing the top five players at each position a daunting task. With that in mind, I enlisted a group of experts to help me out.

They are:

Kevin Shea: Author of “Barilko-Without A Trace”, “A Fan For All Seasons”, “Toronto Maple Leafs – Diary Of A Dynasty: 1957 -1967” and the upcoming Derek Sanderson autobiography “Crossing The Line”

Bill Watters: Former player agent, color commentator and Leafs Assistant General Manager

Howard Berger: Veteran reporter who covered the Maple Leafs for 25 years for the FAN 590

Jeff Marek: host for Sportsnet and of the Marek vs Wyshynski podcast, member of the Society for International Hockey Research.

Paul Patskou: co-author of “Toronto Maple Leafs – Diary Of A Dynasty: 1957-1967”, member of the Society for International Hockey Research.

Paul Bruno: contributor to “Toronto Maple Leafs – Diary Of A Dynasty: 1957-1967”, member of the Society for International Hockey Research.

Sean ”Down Goes Brown” McIndoe - Hockey humor blogger(www DownGoesBrown.com),writer for National Post; Grantland and author of “The Best of Down Goes Brown”

Rob Del Mundo(@tmlfansRob): Co-owner of TMLFans.ca, Leafs reporter/writer for The Fischler Report.

With additional contributions from Leafs play by play man Joe Bowen and longtime hockey fan and friend Charles Bender, who helped greatly in putting this together.

Each were asked to give their ratings on the top five players of all time at the five player positions, as well as the top five coaches and enforcers. Each player who was selected was assigned points for their placement; 1st place = 5 pts, 2nd place = 4 pts, 3rd place = 3 pts, 4th place = 2 pts, 5th place = 1 pt and then divided by the number of voters to come up with an average score.

The number of right wingers who received votes were not as diverse as the group on the left side. There were eight wingers selected altogether, here are the players who finished 6th through 8th:

#8



1957-64

Stats with Toronto
250 GP, 55 G, 100 A, 155 Pts, 55 PIM, Stanley Cups = 2, Average Score – 0.11

Nevin broke in with Toronto in 1959 and scored 21 goals in his first season as a Leaf in 1960-61. He was known as a hard working winger who fit well with Frank Mahovlich and Red Kelly and was diligent at both ends of the ice. He scored double figures in goals all three seasons in Blue and White and was part of Toronto’s Stanley Cup winning clubs in 1962 and 1963, but was sent to the New York Rangers in 1964 as part of a package to obtain Hall Of Famer Andy Bathgate.

#7



1992-96

Stats with Toronto
223 GP, 120 G, 99 A, 219 Pts, 194 PIM, Stanley Cups = 0, Average Score – 0.33

Andreychuk was acquired from Buffalo in the Grant Fuhr deal in February 1993 in another of Cliff Fletcher’s highway robberies. He scored 25 goals in just 31 games playing with Doug Gilmour, which put him over the 50 goal mark for the first time in his career and 12 goals in the 1992-93 playoff run to within one game of the Stanley Cup Final. The next season, the hulking winger scored 53 goals and Toronto again made it to the Western Conference Final, losing to Vancouver. The future Hall Of Famer played two more seasons with the Leafs before being traded to New Jersey in a cost cutting move for draft picks in 1996.


#6



2001-2004

Stats with Toronto
176 GP, 65 G, 101 A, 166 Pts, 32194 PIM, Stanley Cups = 0, Average Score – 0.44

Mogilny was brought in as a scoring compliment to Mats Sundin and did not disappoint, as he scored 24 goals in 66 games in his first season and excelled without the Leafs captain in the playoffs, scoring eight goals in Toronto’s trip to the Eastern Conference Final in 2002. He led the club in scoring the following season, with 33 goals and 46 assists and won the Lady Byng Trophy. He was limited to 37 games in 2003-04, as a result of a hip injury and subsequent surgery to repair it. Former Leafs Asst GM Bill Watters considers Mogilny one of the best acquisitions the club made during his tenure with the club.

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