With the Maple Leafs centennial upcoming in 2017, there will be many retrospective looks at the club’s 100-year history and the many great players who wore the Blue and White. The debate over which players are the best has been highlighted by the revealing of the selections for the Legend’s Row monument in Maple Leaf Square (the next to be announced on September 12th during the second Fan Fest), but the club will be only be honoring about a dozen of the 869 players who have worn the Toronto uniform.
With that in mind on this last day of August and with hockey still a few weeks away, here’s a look at who are the best Leafs players from A to Z.
N - Bob Nevin – Nevin won two Stanley Cups with the Leafs in 1962 and 1963 and finished second to Dave Keon for the Calder in 1961, before being sent to New York as part of the 1964 blockbuster deal that brought veteran Andy Bathgate to Toronto.
O – Bert Olmstead – A four-time Stanley Cup winner with Montreal, Olmstead was claimed by Toronto in 1959 and provided veteran leadership to the Leafs who won their first Stnaley Cup in 11 years in his final season. He beats out Ed Olczyk, who scored over 30 goals in each of his three seasons before being traded to Winnipeg in 1990.
P – Bob Pulford – Hall-of-Fame left winger who scored 251 career goals and four Stanley Cups with Toronto. Pulford was remarkably consistent, scoring in double figures every one of his 14 seasons with the Leafs.
Q – Joel Quenneville/Pat Quinn – The only two players with the name starting with Q in Toronto history played two seasons with the Leafs before making various stops in their playing careers. Both gained more fame as coaches, with Quenneville winning three Cups with the Blackhawks and Quinn winning Olympic Gold, the World Cup and leading the Leafs to a pair of Eastern Conference Final appearances in 1999 and 2002.
R – Gary Roberts – The tough winger and 50-goal scorer scored 20 goals or more in three of his four seasons for the Leafs and scored 19 points in 19 playoff games in 2002.
S – Darryl Sittler – Another tough choice between Hall-of-Famers Sittler and Mats Sundin, but #27 wins out in spite of Sundin being the club’s career scoring leader. Though they played in different eras and were similarly hampered by clubs that did not have enough depth, Sittler was the more dominant of the two centers in his time. The Leafs made the Conference Final in 2002 in spite of Sundin missing the first two rounds of the post-season.
T – Darcy Tucker – A flip of the coin between Steve “Stumpy… Thomas, high scoring defenseman Ian Turnbull and the rambunctious Tucker, as all had lengthy stints of success. My choice is #16, who scored 20 goals or more four times from 1999 to 2008 and was a disturber of the highest order.
U – Norm Ullman – A Hall-of-Fame center who was acquired along with Paul Henderson in the deal that sent Frank Mahovlich to Detroit in 1968, Ullman played eight seasons in Toronto as the number two center behind Darryl Sittler and scored 20 goals or more five times before departing to the WHA in 1975.
V– Rick Vaive – A pure goal scorer who was acquired along with center Bill Derlago from Vancouver for Tiger Williams and Jerry Butler in 1980. In seven seasons with Toronto, Vaive scored 50 goals three straight seasons and never scored less than 30 goals as a Leaf.
W – Dave “Tiger… Williams – Combative left-winger who played mostly with Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald for the 1970’s Leafs. Williams is the career NHL penalty minute leader and averaged over 20 goals in five seasons with Toronto before being traded to Vancouver in 1980.
X – Marks the spot
Y – Dmitri Yushkevich – A solid two-way defenseman, Yushkevich was acquired from Philadelphia in 1995 and played seven seasons in Toronto, including the 1999 Eastern Conference Final club.
Z – Peter Zezel – Acquired along with defenseman Bob Rouse from Washington for Al Iafrate in 1990, Zezel played four seasons in Toronto and was an integral part of the consecutive Conference Final clubs in 1993 and 1994 on the Leafs checking line with Mark Osborne and Bill Berg.
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