Many fine players go through their entire career without being on a Stanley Cup winner. That should not diminish their legacy, but there is no question that being on a “winner” only helps a player’s lasting reputation.

I remember Bill Gadsby, a solid defenseman in my youth with the Red Wings (he played earlier in his career with New York and Chicago), missed out on a Cup, despite 20 great NHL seasons. He came close with the Wings three times in the 1960s, but his club lost in the finals each time.

Yet the Cup seems to follow other players around. In modern times, one of the all-time great ‘agitators’, Claude Lemieux, was in that category. While there can be a degree of good fortune in terms of being in the right place at the right time, Lemieux certainly was a factor in his teams winning Cups in Montreal, New Jersey and Colorado.

Back in the late 1950s and early 60s, one player, Eddie Litzenberger, contributed to a five Cup victories—with three different teams.

Litzenberger played his first NHL game with Montreal in the 1952-’53 season. Montreal won the Cup that season, and though Litzenberger didn’t play in the playoffs, he did contribute a goal in two regular season games with the Habs.

He was traded to Chicago during the 1954-’55 season, when the Hawks weren’t a very strong team. He became a leader on the team, which turned the corner in the late 50s with youngsters Pierre Pilotte, Bobby Hull, Glen Hall and Stan Mikita, among others. Litzenberger captained the Hawks to the 1961 Stanley Cup, upsetting Montreal in 6 games in the first round, and then defeating Detroit, also in 6 games, in the final.

Litzenberger started the next season with the Wings, but was traded to Toronto mid-way through the season. What happened? The Leafs won the Cup, with Litzenberger earning a couple of assists in the playoffs.

He was a significant contributor for the Leafs when they had an outstanding 1962-’63 season, as they finished first in the regular season and needed only 10 games to earn another Cup. Eddie scored a goal and added 2 assists that spring. (We’ve included a game-action photo of Litzenberger in his time with the Leafs.  Eddie is on the far right.)

By the following season, Litzenberger was not playing regularly, and spent more time in the minors than with the Leafs, but he did play a game in the ’64 playoffs, as the Leafs won their third Cup in succession- four in a row for Litzenberger.

Litzenberger completed his career in the Leafs minor-league system, retiring after the 1965-’66 season. Remarkably, he helped Rochester win the American Hockey League championship in 1965 and 1966, meaning he was part of championship teams from 1961 through 1966.

And, when you look back, he was actually part of five teams that won the Stanley Cup- outstanding by any standard.

A good player. And definitely a winner.

It’s funny how one goal, or a break here or there that leads to a win lightens the mood on a hockey team—and within the fan base.

When the Leafs were losing close games, including in shootouts, it was natural to focus on who was struggling, including young defenseman Luke Schenn.

So the win in Tampa helped the mood, though the team surely deserved better a couple of nights earlier against the Islanders.

Nonetheless, it’s great to see a young defenseman like Gunnarsson begin to play and make an bit of an impact with the Leafs. It’s especially eye opening when a 7th round draft pick makes it to the big team and looks like he can indeed play.

While he’s older than most rookies are, it’s still no doubt wise not to rush to judgment when assessing the play of young d-men. As fans, we can sometimes become overly optimistic in terms of what we project. Similarly, we can dismiss a player far too soon.

Like everyone else, I’d like to see Gunnarsson play a lot more before we see how he will really fit. He certainly seems to play with poise. With good coaching, he should be a much better player a few years down the road.

I suggested a few days ago that the Leafs might do well to give Schenn some time in the minors. Not as a demotion, simply to give him valuable minutes and build his confidence. Regardless, Leaf fans are hoping that Schenn, a high first round-pick now 20 years old and Gunnarsson, a 7th round pick now aged 23, will both be cornerstones on the Leaf blueline for years to come.

While the Leafs will no doubt wish to add (and desperately need) a potential “Top 6” forward in the near future, if they could trade up to add one more young defender in the draft next summer Leaf fans may just have the kind of solid young defense corps that every NHL team wants. It won’t exactly be Bowmeester, Regehr and Phaneuf like Calgary has- all now established veterans and impact players- but it would be a positive step.

It’s still too early to make any accurate pronouncements about how things will unfold for Schenn and Gunnarsson. It’s usually much better when the expectations are modest, which is usually the case with late-round draft choices like Gunnarsson.

Detroit has rightfully earned credit for some wise later-rounds selections over the years, picking up talented forwards like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, among others.

However, there is some precedent in Toronto, too. The Leafs selected Tomas Kaberle in the 8th round in 1996. Pat Quinn put him in the line-up as a young rookie in 1998-’99 and while hardly a physically punishing defenseman, he has played some very good hockey for the club ever since.

So we’ll see how Gunnarsson progresses. If he turned out at all like Kaberle, most Leaf enthusiasts will be pleased. The ceiling is supposedly higher for Schenn, but things don’t always work out as expected.

It’s important to be patient with both young players. Three years from now will be way more important for the team than now.

This much is certain. It’s nice to know the Leafs have some youth—talented youth—on the back end, young defensemen that should only get better with age, proper development and experience.

It management does indeed wish to build from the net out, then some pieces are in place, it seems. But it may take a while to build strength up front, where any success will have to come through sheer effort and outworking the opposition most nights.

You often wonder what it will be like to meet a “celebrity”. Will they be nice? Will they blow you off?

I can’t absolutely pinpoint the year, but I’m going to say I was 12 or 13 and in grade 7, which would put us back to the 1965-’66 National Hockey League season.

There was an ad in the paper saying that Bobby Hull was going to be at the Canadian Tire in Windsor (Ontario). For us, that was about a 20-25 minute drive from our small hometown of River Canard in Essex County.

I no doubt bugged my Dad to take me, and he relented. Games in those days of the 6-team NHL were usually on a Wednesday or Thursday (in addition to Saturday and Sunday), so it must have been the case that the Black Hawks were scheduled to play in Detroit on a Thursday night, and this was the night before. Canadian Tire would have paid Hull a small fee to appear and draw people into the store.

While Hull would have been among the highest-paid players in those days, no one in the NHL was making anywhere near the $100,000+ annual salaries like the top baseball stars were receiving in that era, guys like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and a few others. So, making extra cash through commercial endorsements or appearances was important.

As anyone who followed hockey in the pre-expansion days knows, Hull was one of a handful of players who were true superstars in those days. Rocket Richard had retired, Gordie Howe was nearing the end of his brilliant career. Frank Mahovlich was a wonderfully talented player but considered something of an enigma. Bobby Orr was to come shortly thereafter.

But at that time, Hull was the man. While not overwhelmingly large, and certainly not so compared to today’s players, he was unbelievably strong. He loved to take the puck from behind his own net and make the rink-long rush. He had the hardest shot in the game, and along with Stan Mikita and Andy Bathgate were really the first guys to use the ‘curved stick’ regularly. Though his great Hawk teams won only one Stanley Cup (in 1961, while beating Montreal in the semi-finals and breaking a run of 5 straight Cups for the Habs) they were loaded with names I remember to this day: Glenn Hall, Mikita, Pierre Pilotte, “Moose” Vasko, Bill Hay, Kenny Wharram, former Leaf Eric Nesterenko and many others.

But the guy who gave the Hawks that swagger was Hull. He was media-friendly and had a magnetic presence about him. (We’ve included a great old photo of Hull after he scored 50 goals in a season for the first time near the end of the 1961-’62 season.)

His may have been the first “cross-over” hockey star, in the sense that he had broad public appeal and attracted companies anxious to use his name and appearance to boost sales. I recall that, in the mid ‘60s, he appeared in print ads with big names from other sports, such as Frank Gifford and Bob Cousy.

Hull was known to sign autographs after games for as long as kids were willing to wait for his signature. The stories in those days were many of teammates who grumbled about the team bus having to wait for Hull, but Hull obviously recognized that without fans, where would he be? He did this for years, and the players who complained were among those who benefited from the stature Hull gave the game, the revenues he helped generate and the salaries he helped to drive up.

As I think back, I remember inviting my grade-school friend Gary to join us that night. My Dad was always willing to give one of my friends a ride, and so we picked Gary up that night and headed to Windsor. When we got there, there was already a line up waiting to meet Hull. We sat in our car in the store parking lot, and waited. We waited because my Dad was not a fan of standing in line, so we listened to the car radio and talked. My Dad read his ever-present newspaper.

We kept peering in through the windshield to see what was happening in the storefront window, but the line never seemed to get shorter. Finally, after sitting in the cold car for more than two hours, and realizing the time that was promoted for Hull to be on hand (probably 7:30-9:30pm) was coming to an end, we decided we better get into the line up, for fear that stragglers like us would be cut off.

We were almost the very last people in the now shortened line, and we hoped Hull would stay to the very end. What stays with me to this day is that, after what was probably 3 hours of ‘meeting and greeting’ people, he was still so friendly, smiling. He shook hands with all of us, talked farming with my Dad. (Hull was raised in a small farming community not far from Belleville, Ontario). He even signed the hockey puck my buddy Gary had brought along. (I wasn’t smart enough to bring anything to sign.) I’m pretty sure it was not to be a night for autograph requests, in order to keep the line moving. But again, it was the end of the night and Hull was kind enough to stay and sign for Gary.

I bring this up in part because, only a very few years ago, I brought my youngest son to a memorabilia show near the airport in Mississauga. My son and I stood in line to have Hull sign a photo for my son. I was happy to pay the fee involved, as this brought back wonderful memories for me, and would be a lifelong memory for my son. Hull, then well into his 60’s, couldn’t have been friendlier with my son, still flashing that great smile of his 40 years after I first met him, albeit briefly, at a small Canadian Tire store.

But you know what stood out about this last “meeting” with Hull at the memorabilia show? As we were leaving, a fan who had also waited quite some time in line asked Hull to sign an item that was not sold on site by the company that had paid Hull to appear. The organizers tried to send the man away. But Hull quietly spoke with the man, and told him where he could go to meet Hull outside after the event was over in a few minutes. Hull offered to sign the item for the man.

I have no doubt that Hull signed the item—for free—just as he did (and also wasn’t “supposed” to) for my friend Gary 40 years before.

One of the most famous games in Leaf history is Game 7 of the 1964 semi-finals against Montreal.

The Leafs were coming off two Cup years in succession, but were life and death to stay with Montreal in that back and forth series. Montreal was re-loading after a few tough years (by their standards) and led the series 3-games to 2 heading to Toronto for Game 6.

But the defending champs gained some momentum with a 3-0 win at home, to tie the series at 3 games apiece. (We’ve included a photo of Bobby Baun scoring for Toronto in Game 6 at the Gardens.)

That’s when Davey Keon took over.

Keon was not only my favorite as a young Leaf fan in the early 60s, he was the favorite player of thousands of kids across the country. I’ll write more about Keon on other occasions, but in a splendid Leaf career that spanned 15 seasons—and many highlights—that night in April of 1964 stands near or at the top of the list of Keon’s finest games. (I truly believe Keon may have been the finest all-around player in the game in his first five or six seasons in the league, but I’ll go into that another time.)

Hodge, who was in net for Montreal the night Gordie Howe scored career goal #545 and broke Rocket Richard’s goal-scoring record at the Olympia in Detroit (Worsley was in goal for #544 a few games earlier), remained with the Habs the next three seasons, helping them win Cups both years, though Worsley was the main man in the playoffs. Young Rogatien Vachon was called up to play for Montreal toward the end of the 1966-’67 season, essentially making Hodge a third-stringer.

When expansion hit after that season, Hodge finished his career with the Oakland Seals and Vancouver Canucks- a talented goalie in his playing days and a respected scout in retirement with Winnipeg, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

The continued emergence of Ian White as perhaps the best all-around Maple Leaf defenseman evokes memories of another “under-sized” defender who had a lengthy and successful NHL career.

I’m thinking of Pat Stapleton, the long-time Chicago Black Hawk who forged an excellent career as an NHL defenseman, despite his relative lack of size. At 5 foot 8 inches, Stapleton was considered ‘short’ in his era, just as White, at 5 foot 10, is so considered today.

Stapleton first played in the NHL with the Bruins in the early 60s, but really started to make a name for himself with Chicago during the 1965-’66 season. He went on to play 8 seasons with the Hawks, including appearances in the Cup finals in 1971 and 1973. Like many others, Stapleton signed a lucrative contract in the new World Hockey Association (with the Chicago Cougars) before the 1973-’74 season. He played the last five years of his pro career in that loop.

(I recall watching Stapleton, with the Cougars, play against the Toronto Toros at the old Varsity Arena in Toronto. It was probably during the 1973-’74 season, and I just remember thinking “Why is this guy in this league”? He was a tremendous player in a league that was trying to establish itself, but the WHA drew some big names, including Derek Sanderson and former Leafs Bernie Parent, Rick Ley, Brad Selwood and Jim Dorey. But the biggest name of all was Stapleton’s former Chicago teammate Bobby Hull, who signed with the Winnipeg Jets and helped drive salaries up across the board. The money offered by the new league was so good for so many NHL’ers that they simply couldn’t turn it down.)

Stapleton had developed into such an effective player during his Chicago years that he was selected for - and played a big part with - Team Canada in the famous Summit Series against the Russians 1972. Stapleton could skate and move the puck. He played particularly well with Bill White, who at 6 feet 2 was more of a classic defensive defenseman. White had been buried in the minors before expansion, but joined the Hawks from the LA Kings during the 1969-’70 season and teamed effectively with Stapleton for several years.

All this said, you can see in Ian White a versatility similar to that displayed by Stapleton, a trait that makes him very valuable to a coach. To me, White has been a noticeable player since he joined the Leafs for the first time during the 2005-’06 season. Though he sat out the first 10 or so games last season, he has since earned Ron Wilson’s trust, obviously, and is counted on to play significant minutes. It’s hard not to like his competitiveness, and he has the skating ability and tools- like Stapleton- to be a difference maker for years.

If you mention the name Cesare Maniago to most hockey fans who were around from the 1970’s forward, chances are the team they will associate him with is the Minnesota North Stars.

That makes sense, because the tall (6'2") goalie played the better part of a decade with the North Stars, including some memorable playoff series—most notably one against the Montreal Canadiens in 1971.

He was the number one guy most of those years, though I recall that he shared time with Hall-of-Famer Gump Worsley when the latter also joined the Stars in the early ‘70s after an illustrious career with Montreal and the Rangers before that.

But one of the interesting sidebars about Maniago’s career is that he may well have been the only goalie ever to play for the 3 “original” Canadian teams—Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Toronto and Montreal were “Original 6” franchises, of course. Vancouver gained entry into the league for the 1970-’71 season.

Maniago came up in the Toronto system, playing junior for St. Mikes. He played only a few games with the big team, during the 1960-’61 season. But it was enough to get his name etched forever in the record books. Montreal great “Boom Boom” Geoffrion became only the second player ever to score 50 goals in a season in the spring of ’61, notching the record-tying marker against the Leafs with Maniago in goal at the Forum in Montreal. (We’ve included a game-action photo of Maniago in one of his appearances with the Leafs that season.)

Ironically, the big goalie and Geoffrion were teammates not long afterwards, as Maniago had moved to the Montreal minor league system after the 60-’61 season. Maniago played a few games for Toe Blake and the Habs in 1962-’63 as a short-term replacement for Jacques Plante.

Eventually Maniago found himself in the Rangers system, and earned some starts in 1965-’66. (In fact, I believe he was in net for another “milestone” marker, Bobby Hull’s record-breaking 51st goal late that season.) By the next season, he was re-united with Geoffrion who had come out of retirement, and was fighting with newcomer Eddie Giacomin for the number one job in New York. However, a minor injury sidelined Maniago early on, and Giacomin took advantage of Maniago’s absence to grab the top job, which he held onto for a decade.

Expansion gave Maniago his big chance to play on a regular basis. He established himself right away with the North Stars, and was a backbone of that squad, which at different times featured popular expansion-era names such as Bill Goldworthy, Danny Grant, J.P. Parise, ex-Bruin Tommy Williams (the first American to play regularly in the NHL earlier in his career with the Bruins), Tom Reid, Murray Oliver and Jude Drouin.

Maniago finished his distinguished career with two seasons in Vancouver, where he has remained a respected, well-regarded figure in the community.

As we know, the NHL has expanded significantly since those “early” days, making it pretty much impossible to expect any goalie will ever play for all Canadian-based clubs. Those following this site may know if any other goaltender played for the Leafs, Montreal and Vancouver over the course of their careers. If you think of anyone, let us know.

As our site grows, we would love to post interesting memories from those who follow Vintage Leaf Memories.

If you have a story to share, contact us at Michael@prospectcommunications.com

We look forward to posting pieces from guest writers.

For those of you perhaps visiting the site for the first time, a little background may be helpful.

The site focuses on my memories and experiences as a Toronto Maple Leaf fan dating back to the late ‘50s. It includes recollections and events up to and including my time as a young broadcaster in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

While the focus is largely from the late ‘50s to the late ‘70s, this past week we posted stories on Leaf memories from the decade of the ‘80s. The site is certainly Leaf-oriented, but I will be talking all things hockey from the ‘good-old-days’. You don’t have to be a Leaf fan to enjoy the site. I’m sharing a wide range of hockey stories -such as the time I met Bobby Orr in his rookie season, in late 1966, under unusual circumstances.

In addition, we are not only offering readers some old audio interviews I did in the 1970s and early ‘80s, but some new interviews we have done just recently. Our “vintage” collection on the site already includes Rocket Richard, Tiger Williams and Wayne Gretzky. We will add more over time. Our new interview was with former Montreal and Toronto great Dickie Moore and we have more interviews with old-time Leafs already scheduled.

I’ve included stories on former Leafs such as Don Simmons and Eddie Chadwick, as well as Brian Spencer, Andy Bathgate, Marc Reaume, Lanny McDonald, Mike Walton and Jim Harrison. I’ve also written about new Leafs like Jonas Gustavsson and Phil Kessell. There is more to come.

We enjoy hearing from you with any comments and suggestions. Contact us at michael@prospectcommunications.com

During the 1978-’79 NHL season, I was working in the broadcast industry in Montreal and consequently attended a lot of games at the Forum.

I remember watching a then very young Rod Langway work his way into the Canadiens line-up. Now, keep in mind that, ahead of him on the depth chart were superstars like Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson, not to mention other solid defenders such as Brian Engblom.

Early on in Montreal Langway lacked confidence, was nervous handling the puck and not adept at moving it quickly. But it was clear he had talent. I seem to recall he went back to play for a few weeks in the AHL in Nova Scotia, and when he re-joined the Habs, he was a different player: confident, a good puck-handler and decisive moving the puck.

He was good enough by the end of the season to play in some playoff games that spring as Montreal won their fourth Cup in a row. He ultimately became a Norris Trophy- winning defenseman with Washington, one of the best defensemen in the ‘80s.

I bring this up simply to say that sophomore defenseman Luke Schenn may benefit from spending time with the Leafs’ AHL team. Schenn is clearly a talented young defenseman, but if his confidence is indeed slipping, having his every move watched intently by a frustrated Leaf fan base and a nervous coaching staff may not be the best way to fight through a tough time.

The young man has a shot at a long career in the NHL, hopefully in Toronto. Whether it was indeed the right move to keep him last season (when he could have played another year in junior) is a moot point now, I realize. Most players in my view benefit from playing out their junior careers, then spending some time in the minors. It’s too late to take that exact approach with Schenn now.

But the future is more important than the present in Toronto, and if management really sees Schenn as a cornerstone-type player, then working effectively with him and ensuring his confidence is where it needs to be should be a priority.

With that as a backdrop, my earlier posts this week provided a modest overview of just a few of the things that went off rails in that down decade.

Indeed, the ‘80s, in terms of results, were about as bad as a ten-year period can be for a sports franchise. Twice the Leafs won only 20 games in a season, 21 another year.

That’s not good by any definition, even pre- “shoot out” freebie wins.

The decade started with Punch Imlach in charge, began badly and never rebounded in any real, pronounced way.

There were colorful characters along the way—coach John Brophy certainly brought some intensity and colorful suits behind the bench for a time in the mid-latter part of the decade — and there were some individually talented players, for sure.

But it was a bad era overall. Perhaps much like today’s Leafs, everybody who played in Toronto were all good pro players. The mix just wasn’t there to be a really strong, contending team.

So in an exercise in pure fun, I thought it would be interesting to select the best Leaf players from that decade to comprise a team, and see if things may have been a lot better, if only they could all have been brought together for one season.

So, here’s a selection of 20 guys—the best of the Leafs in the 1980s: (My selections assume the player being at their best, which in some cases may have been before or after the ‘80s, but they must have played with the Leafs in the ‘80s.)

Goal

• Alan Bester

• Don Edwards

Honorable mention: Ken Wreggett

• Todd Gill

• Al Iafrate

• Jim Benning

• Borje Salming

• Brad Maxwell

• Dave Burrows

• Darryl Sittler

• Russ Courtnall

• Bill Derlago

• Laurie Boschman

Honorable mention:

• Dale McCourt (though his best years were earlier in his career)

• Vincent Damphouse (also had his best years elsewhere)

• Ed Olczyk

• Wendell Clark

• John Anderson

• Dan Maloney

• Steve Thomas

Honorable mention: Mark Osborne

• Rick Vaive

• Gary Leeman

• Wilf Paiement

• Ron Ellis

Honorable mention: Miroslav Frycer

I won’t go into detail on why I chose all of the above. I always liked Bester. He just need someone who understood goalies, to give him the confidence he needed on a consistent basis. I thought Benning could have been so much better in the right environment. Maxwell and Burrows had their best years elsewhere, I realize. (Maxwell’s time with Toronto paralleled that of Larry Murphy to a degree. Both were extremely talented defensemen, but it just never worked in Toronto.) Courtnall had all that speed; Derlago was such a fine passer. I think if Paiement had been here under different circumstances (not as the guy traded for Sittler) he might have thrived.

My conclusion is: all were solid NHL’ers. Some were pretty elite players, for a while, obviously. At their very best (in some cases, with other teams- Donnie Edwards with the Sabres being an example) there are some true “stars” on the list.

But even so, taking the very best players that the Leafs had at some point during the 80s, they would not have been a great squad, and certainly not a championship level team. They didn’t have the goaltending, though to this day I believe that Bester had the talent to be a solid NHL’er if he had had the right kind of support system in place. The defense I’ve selected is interesting: Salming still played some good hockey in the ‘80s, but his ‘hey day’ was the ‘70s. Gill, who I really liked as a Leaf, played some excellent hockey under Pat Burns in the early-mid ‘90s but struggled earlier in his career. Maxwell was a fine defenseman in Minnesota who never found his stride in Toronto. Burrows had his best years earlier with Pittsburgh. But again, it’s not a standout defense, even if you measured these players in their absolute best years.

In terms of forwards, I had a hard time finding enough right-wingers, for example. There’s some skill throughout the squad, for sure, but not a lot of toughness beyond Paiement and Clark.

No matter how we look at it, the ‘80s were not a great era for Leaf fans. The standings didn’t lie.

Some names come to mind of wonderfully talented Junior players who just didn’t quite make it in Toronto.

Dan Hodgson was a gifted offensive player, selected in the first round in 1985 after netting about 180 points in his final junior year. He scored 13 goals in half a season, but he was gone by the next year to Vancouver.

Ernie Godden I saw with my own eyes as a Junior star in Windsor. He was the heart and soul of the Windsor Spitfire team, and like Hodgson, put up big numbers in his final junior season. Drafted by Toronto 55th overall in 1981, he played a total of 5 games with Toronto, scoring one goal. He had a couple of great years in the AHL, but never got a real shot in Toronto.

Mark Kirton had been drafted 48th overall by Toronto in 1978, a great checker out of Peterborough. Leaf fans hoped he would be another Doug Jarvis. But he only played 13 games in the early 80s before being traded to Detroit. He had a nice career, just not in Toronto.

Laurie Boschman was standout in Junior hockey. Drafted high in the first round by Toronto in 1979, he was considered a can’t miss, gritty player who would be a leader in the 80s, but never really got off the ground with the Leafs. He developed into a fine two-way player in the league, but with Winnipeg, not Toronto.

Bruce Boudreau had been a high pick in the mid-70s. He had several cups of coffee with the Leafs over many years, but he was a small guy and not that fast. His huge Junior numbers didn’t translate to the NHL, and he perhaps (by his own acknowledgement, in later years) didn’t have the work ethic or willingness to adapt his game to become a more complete player. He had some big years in the minors, but again, he should have been and could have been an impact player for Toronto in the 80s.  It never happened.

Norm Aubin, like Boudreau and the others, was a talented offensive player in the Quebec Junior league. He spent parts of two seasons in Toronto, scored some goals, but struggled defensively. Again, he had some good years in the AHL, but never clicked in Toronto.

Gary Yaremchuk was a high-scoring center from the Western Junior league, taken 24th overall in 1981. His Leaf tally show he played 35 games over several seasons, scoring 1 goal.

Rich Costello, a high pick of the Flyers acquired in the Darryl Sittler trade, scored 2 goals for Toronto over only 12 games.

The end of the decade saw the Leafs have 3 first-round picks in 1989. They selected 3 really good young players, but all from the same team, the Belleville Bulls. It added to the impression that the Leafs didn’t go very far to do their scouting. Scott Thornton, selected third overall, played over a thousand NHL games, including playoffs. He had a solid career - elsewhere. Rob Pearson played almost 300 games in the NHL and had a nice pro career. Steve Bancroft played a few games in the NHL, but had a long and successful career in the minors. It’s too easy to say the Leafs blew it by picking three guys from the same team (Adam Foote and Nicklas Lindstrom were both selected after them in the draft that year) but the fact remains that the three guys all had good careers- again, just not in Toronto.

I guess my point is: the Leafs didn’t necessarily always draft badly. Each of these young men were considered prime talents. All had some level of success in the pros. But a combination of poor development approaches, the pressure of playing in Toronto, inadequate coaching to bring out the best in these players, impatience, whatever — meant that guys who should have been difference makers in Toronto simply weren’t.

That, and some other horrible management decisions (for example, keeping each of Fred Boimistruck, Bob McGill and Jim Benning as 18 year-olds when they all should have been building their confidence in junior hockey) led to a largely disappointing decade of hockey.

Knowing that this site is primarily about my memories from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, someone asked me recently—“do you have any Leaf memories from the ‘80s?”

Well, for the first part of that decade I was still involved in the broadcasting field and had the opportunity to interview many players and coaches, so I’ll share some of those memories over times on this site, for sure.

But it was a good question.

Now, part of why I have not focused too much on the ‘80s and beyond on this site is that there are plenty of sites around which are more “current” about Leaf news and information. The other reality in my own life is that once my wife and I started our family in 1980, there simply wasn’t the time available to spend watching hockey/the Leafs. Priorities naturally shifted.

I’ve always followed the team pretty closely, just not as intently.

In recent years, as the kids grew into adulthood, there has been more opportunity to see and feel what’s happening in Leaf nation.

But back to that question, what about the ‘80s?

Well, for me, and for a lot of Leaf fans, it’s kind of a dark period. Twice the team won only 20 games. Once they won 21. They were never at or above .500 at the end of any season.

“Leaf world” changed radically when Punch Imlach made his return visit to Toronto the summer of 1979, evidently proving you really shouldn’t go home again. He started cleaning house during the 1979-’80 season, and quickly dismantled the team before his health gave out and he was fired (more correctly, not re-hired) by owner Harold Ballard.

What stands out is: Lanny McDonald was traded in the winter of 1980, and the team was never the same. It wasn’t great before, but at least it was competitive and had an edge.

There had been some camaraderie. That was soon lost.

Of course, other players left through Punch’s time and then when Gerry McNamara was in charge. Tiger Williams and Jerry Butler, two good grinders, were traded to Vancouver (for Bill Derlago and Rick Vaive—a pretty good deal, actually), Sittler took the captain’s “C” off his chest at one point and was eventually traded to Philadelphia, where he was promised the captaincy by GM Bobby Clarke and then traded the same day, basically.

Other memories? I vaguely remember defenseman Gaston Gingras, a former Hab, scoring a goal in a playoff goal from center ice in the early ‘80s against Minnesota, but it didn’t exactly have the same impact as Jacques Lemaire scoring on Tony Esposito in Game 7 of the NHL finals in 1971. The Leafs lost, I believe, in 3 straight (3 out of 5 series) to the North Stars.

Drafting Wendell Clark first overall was a “highlight” of the decade. It wasn’t like drafting Mario Lemieux (Lemieux went the year before, to Pittsburgh) but Clark at his best was a powerful, bruising player with toughness and that great wrist shot.

I know that somewhere in the ‘80s, the Leafs, with Clark playing a key role, also upset the Hawks in a short playoff series. I believe there was a big third period comeback in Chicago in one of the first two games, which set the tone for the series. (I just looked it up, it was the spring of 1986. I partly remember because my wife and I were on a rare romantic weekend without the kids in Niagara-on-the Lake, but I still managed to watch most of the last game of the series on television.)

That was followed by an interesting series against St. Louis that the Leafs lost, unfortunately, in 7 games.

I also recall that the next season (spring of ‘87) that the Leafs under John Brophy led the Wings 3-1 in a playoff series. Al Iafrate was outstanding on defense. He could skate, shoot, hit and had that long reach.

I always thought if Brophy had rotated his young goalies (Bester and Wregget) a little differently, they may have won that series. As it was, Detroit rallied to win the last 3 games of the series. It’s hard to believe that Steve Yzerman, who hasn’t been retired all that long, was already a young veteran with the Wings back then, under coach Jacques Demers.

But through that decade, they missed the playoffs more than they made them. They changed coaches-a lot. I think we had Imlach (technically as head coach), Joe Crozier, Mike Nykoluk, Dan Maloney, John Brophy, Doug Carpenter and Tom Watt. Former Leaf greats George Armstrong and Dickie Duff may have been in there, too.

And they never made it past the quarter-finals. I’d have to check and see if any of the playoff series they did win was a best 4 out of 7. They may all have been 3 out of 5’s.

So the real answer to the original question is: the memories are somewhat sparse and painful. There were lots of good players, some good coaches, just not the right mix, which I’ll get into in a subsequent post.

But I’m certain if you were a young Leaf fan in the ‘80s, you have tons of memories, maybe some really good ones, and can capture them much better than I have here. I invite you to post your own memories.

Back in the spring of 1978, I was 24 and striving to make headway in my fledgling broadcasting career. I was offered – and accepted - a job in Sault Ste. Marie at one of the local radio stations.

I was working with a gentleman by the name of Muzz MacPherson, who had just been fired a few weeks before as coach of the Junior A Soo Greyhounds.  The 1977-’78 season was Wayne Gretzky’s first in major junior hockey and Muzz was the guy who gave Wayne the idea of wearing number 99 that year, since a player with more seniority already was wearing Gretzky’s usual number 9.

In a short period of time Muzz (a former minor-league goalie) and I became close friends.   We were very different.  He was tough and fiery.  I wasn’t tough or fiery, but for whatever reason we clicked on a personal level.

Trades are often tremendously difficult for athletes and their families, but for fans, talking about potential trades—and how they could possibly improve your club—is one of the more fun aspects of supporting a particular team.

When I think back about trades that I remember as Leaf follower over the years, quite a number stand out. Obtaining Red Kelly in 1960 was big; the Andy Bathgate in ’64 deal helped win a Cup; the huge Mahovlich deal in ‘68, of course, is one of the biggest in Leaf history. There was also the brilliant move by General Manager Jim Gregory to get Bernie Parent in 1971.

But one trade I had wanted to happen for a long time finally did happen in the late winter of 1978.

For years, I had fantasized about the Leafs acquiring Dan Maloney. Maloney had played his junior hockey in London and was drafted in the first round by Chicago. Despite some early success there, he was dealt to Los Angeles, where he gained confidence and really thrived.

Eventually, Maloney became captain of the Kings, and was the soul and backbone of the team. He was tough, just dirty enough to create room for himself and more gifted teammates—a real heart and soul guy. His skating was awkward, but he could check, hit, and boy, could he fight.

When he was grudgingly moved to Detroit by the Kings, he helped turn around a struggling Red Wings franchise and became captain there as well. (I say grudgingly, because Maloney was a real team leader in LA. When the Kings signed Marcel Dionne as a “free agent” away from Detroit, Maloney and defenseman Terry Harper were awarded as compensation.)

I always loved Maloney, and thought he could make a big difference if he was with the Leafs. Toronto had some hockey warriors—Pat Boutette, Tiger Williams, Scott Garland—in the mid-later 70s era, but Maloney was one-of-a-kind. He could score and make an offensive contribution, and would have brought immediate respect in those three series in a row the Leafs had to play against the Board Street Bullies in 1975, 1976 and 1977.

Each time, the Flyers had proven too skilled—and too tough—for the Leafs.

Toronto General Manager Jim Gregory (now a Hall-of-Famer in the Builder category) must have felt the same way.

Before the trade deadline in 1978, Gregory sent talented scorer Errol Thompson, a wonderful skater and offensive player, along with two first-round draft choices, for Maloney.

It was a huge price, but the trade brought instant dividends. The Leafs, in my estimation at the time, would never have upset the Islanders in the playoffs that spring. They did, in 7 games, and Maloney was a significant contributor. Without his physical presence, I was—and still am—convinced the Leafs would never have been able to stand up to the physically punishing Islanders.

Unfortunately, that was about as far as Maloney could take them.

While the Leafs played some spirited hockey against Montreal in the semi-finals that year, they did lose in 4 games. The following season, they met up with the Canadiens and again succumbed in 4 straight games.

Maloney never quite had the impact I had dreamed of after that. The Roger Neilson-Gregory era was shown the door after the 1979 season, Punch Imlach returned and essentially gutted the team, setting the organization back several years. Eventually injuries took their toll on Maloney and he accepted a position as an assistant coach. He went on to coach the Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets.

As I look back now, years later, I would have dearly loved to see Maloney with the Leafs a couple of years sooner. With him in the fold, I’m convinced the Leafs could have upset the Flyers one of those years, and from there, who knows what might have happened?

Some of you who are new to this site may not have had the opportunity to listen to my recent interview with Montreal Canadiens (and one-time Maple Leaf) legend Dickie Moore. We spoke a couple of weeks ago.

Click on the audio link to hear some great stories from an all-time great.

I’ll be doing more new interviews with former Leafs, so visit the site for updates.

I hope you also enjoy the "vintage" interviews we have included on the site from Rocket Richard and Tiger Williams. We will also be adding more of these old interviews on the site in the weeks to come.

I look forward to your comments.

Back in the year 2000, I was asked to write an article for a sports collectibles magazine.

It was always enjoyable developing those kinds of pieces, and this was one particularly so, as the subject was long-time Leaf goaltender and Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bower.

In my encounter with him, everything I had heard about him was indeed true: he was generous with his time, humble, fascinating- and while his memory sometimes wavered slightly, he was a real gentleman.

Johnny was 76 when I spoke with him, so he must be 85 now. By all accounts he remains in good health and is a wonderful guy.

Here are some highlights and quotes from my interview with Bower:

• About his many years with the AHL Cleveland Barons: Johnny said he “loved it there” and that “the Cleveland fans knew hockey”.

• About being selected by then Assistant General-Manager Punch Imlach to join the Maple Leafs in the fall of 1958: “I wanted to play for the Leafs so badly”.

• About his “formal” retirement after the 1969-’70 season, after he had played only one game. “I said I was tired, not retired”.

• He humorously recalled a night in the late 1950s in Montreal, when he was about to play his nemesis, Rocket Richard, and the Canadiens. He attended a church service with a teammate, and lit a few candles, hoping for a little help from above. Unfortunately, as he recalled, he noticed Montreal great Dickie Moore going up after him, and lighting a few candles of his own. “I think Dickie blew my candles out after I left”, Johnny told me. The Leafs lost.

Here are some of his observations about opposing players.

• About the Rocket: “I couldn’t figure him out. He never shot the same place on me twice. He was dynamite from the blue line in.”

• About Jean Beliveau: “I don’t have enough time to say how good Beliveau was. And what a gentleman.”

• Gordie Howe was “so strong and great in the corners”.

• Bobby Hull “had a tremendous shot. He knew where the net was. He was a great two-way player”.

• Of Bobby Orr, he simply said “Great skater”, naming Orr and Doug Harvey as the two finest defensemen he has seen.

I also asked him about a couple of former teammates. He talked of how “strong” Tim Horton was, and how “Alan Stanley played angles so well”. He spoke fondly of all his former mates, mentioning many by name.

He scouted in retirement for Toronto, and told me his proudest “find” was when he was out east and during some down time decided to take in a Senior A game in Prince Edward Island. He spotted young Errol Thompson, and urged the Leafs to draft him. They did, and Thompson went on to score more than 200 goals in less than 600 NHL games, often playing on a line in Toronto with future Hall-of-Famers Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald.

Bower has lent his name and time to countless philanthropic causes, and told me he “just loves giving back.”

He did that during his splendid seasons in blue and white, and is still doing it every chance he gets.

There aren’t many athletes who really deserve to be called heroes but Bower may just be one of them.

Scott Young, the outstanding Globe & Mail writer from the 50s, 60’s and 70s, covered the Leafs closely during the early days of the Punch Imlach era.

He penned a wonderful book at the time called “The Leafs I Knew” about his time following the club from about 1958 to 1963.

I’ll write more about the book another time, but the great weather we are experiencing in this part of the world (especially for mid-November) brought back an anecdote from the book.

Frank Mahovlich was the big Leaf scorer in the early 60s, but in the 1961-’62 season, I think it was, he was off to a slow start after his brilliant 48-goal campaign just the season before.

Young wrote a column, included in the book, which basically told Leaf fans to, in a nice way, relax—the goals would come. He wrote that Mahovlich, known as “The Big M”, was the kind of player who needed to be motivated to play. When the weather was too nice, as it apparently was that fall, he was kind of sluggish.

Young said in his column, don’t worry, when Mahovlich, a tall guy, has to get up in the middle of the night because the weather has turned and his feet are cold - and he has to throw an extra blanket on to cover his toes- he’ll be fine.

In other words, some guys play better when the weather suits the activity. Be patient.

Of course things have changed since those days. Playoffs used to end in April. Now they go until June. I remember reading a magazine story about Rocket Richard when I was really young, in which he said he found it hard to get motivated to play sometimes in April when the weather was too nice.

Hockey was—and is—a winter sport, after all. The Leafs struggled the other night against Minnesota, after some excellent play of late. Maybe they just need a cold blast to get back on track.

I was trying to think of the last time the Leafs employed a goaltender who had both tons of skill – and size.

This made me do a quick mental history of guys I remember between the pipes for the Leafs.

When I was a kid, the Leafs had Eddie Chadwick, then Johnny Bower and later, Terry Sawchuk. None of them were particularly big in stature- all a little under 6 feet.

5 foot 9 inch Bruce Gamble held down the fort for the most part in the late 60s, followed by Jacques Plante (6 feet even) and Bernie Parent (5-10, though he looked bigger).

When that short-lived era ended, the Leafs went through a number of keepers- Doug Favell was the unorthodox but talented guy. He was also 5-10.

Dunc Wilson played here, as did Eddie Johnston toward the end of his career. Neither was over 6 feet.

In 1975, Wayne Thomas joined the Leafs. (We’ve included a photo of Thomas, along with shots of Leaf legend Johnny Bower and one-time Leaf Jacques Plante.) Now Thomas was a tall goalie at 6 feet, 2 inches (acquired from Montreal) but played a very different style from Gustavsson. Thomas started well with the Leafs, but wasn’t the long-term answer they were looking for and within a couple of seasons was replaced by the diminutive Mike Palmateer.

In the early 80s, youngsters Ken Wreggett (6 foot, 1) and little Alan Bester fought for the number one job off and on for years. Wreggett had some size, but was not like Gustavsson in terms of agility. The Leafs utilized a number of different guys through the late 80s and early 90s, briefly settling on former Edmonton Oiler star Grant Fuhr. 6 foot 1 (though he looked smaller to me) Felix Potvin was ‘the man’ during the Leafs two “final four” appearances in the early-to-mid 90s, eventually giving way to Curtis Joseph who was still in his prime when he spent 4 years with the Leafs in the late 90s and the early part of this decade.

Eddie Belfour, though near the end of his fine career, played some outstanding games in blue and white, succeeding Cujo.

Neither, though, was built like the new Leaf keeper.

As I’ve said in my recent post regarding Phil Kessel, it’s natural, though not always useful, to “compare” current players with those who played many years ago. Especially for goalies, the styles have changed radically from 20, 30 and 40 years ago.

But Gustavsson, at 6 foot 3, does remind me a bit, just a bit, of another tall (6 feet, 4), ultra-confident young goalie who seemingly came out of nowhere in 1971, covered lots of net, was nimble for his size and ultimately helped lead Montreal to 6 Stanley Cups.

His name was Ken Dryden, a Hall-of-Famer, now Liberal Member of Parliament and former President of the Maple Leafs.

I wouldn’t begin to suggest Gustavsson is in that league as a goalie yet, or necessarily ever will be.

Sometimes goalies break in to the league with a splash, then struggle.

But for now, it’s refreshing to see the Leaf cage protected by someone with the talent, ability and the size to make his teammates more confident, just as that Montreal goalie did almost 40 years ago.

How often do hockey fans say, “so and so reminds me of Scott Stevens…” or whomever? Quite often, it seems. And almost as often the early comparisons are not a good indicator of what’s to come.

I probably say “especially” so for Leaf fans because, with 40+ years between championships, a fan can get a little desperate, hoping that new recruits – whether they be high draft picks, free agent signings or, in Phil Kessel’s case, players acquired in a trade - will push the team over the hump.

But I do see a little bit of an ‘olden days’ Leaf in Kessel.

Who?

Mike Walton.

Walton was, for his day, a flamboyant player, especially for conservative Toronto, and particularly for ultra-old-school coach Punch Imlach. Walton came up in the classic Leaf manner- he played junior with St. Mike’s, then the Marlies. He then spent time in the minors with Rochester and Tulsa, the usual Leaf outposts for budding Leafs in the 60s. He played a few games with the Leafs in the 1965-’66 season, then made a big impact the following year, earning ice time when others were injured, and playing a fairly prominent role in the playoffs, especially against Chicago. (In the photo we have included with this story, Walton is shown at the far right of the shot, as the Leafs receive the Cup after beating Montreal in Game 6 at Maple Leaf Gardens on May 2, 1967.)

Walton could fly. As fast a skater as Dave Keon was, Walton might have been faster. He used white tape on his stick and had longish hair, and was considered “flakey” for his time, and carried the knick-name “Shakey”.

But as an offensive player in the check, check, check Leaf system under Imlach, he was explosive and stood out on a team that didn’t play that way.

Unfortunately, Walton and Imlach didn’t seem to click, much the way Imlach and Frank Mahovlich had not. Imlach’s coaching theory, while ultimately successful in terms of championships, seemed to be that everyone was to be treated the same.  He did not appear to believe in treating players as individuals.

In any event, it was a bad marriage, and though Walton helped the Leafs win the Cup in ’67, things went south and even when a new management team and coach came to Toronto, Walton was unhappy and asked to be moved. He was traded to the Bruins in the early 70’s, and won another Cup with Boston in 1972, before playing many years in the WHA and completing his career back in the NHL with Boston (again) and Chicago.

His career numbers back up my point about his obvious offensive skills, as he scored almost 350 goals in the NHL/WHA in only about 800 games.

I guess my point is, current Leaf management wanted a “top 6” forward, and needed someone who the other team would have to try and game plan for, something the roster has obviously been missing since the departure of Mats Sundin.

Walton was ahead of his time in Toronto, a player who wanted to score, free- wheel and play offense - in a decidedly defensive system.

The Leafs play a defensive “system” under the current regime, (most teams do, unfortunately, nowadays) but management recognized that they need offensive threats right now- not in three or fours years from now, when the draft picks that Kessel cost might be ready to have an impact.

While Imlach tolerated Walton, it seemed, Brian Burke and Ron Wilson have obviously embraced young Kessel.

And if Kessel can provide the kind of flair Walton did, he’ll not only pick up points and help the Leafs secure some wins, perhaps as importantly he’ll help the Leafs become a more entertaining team to watch.