Your personal all-time Leafs team

[Kin]

Just as a way to keep busy or engage the board I thought I'd start with asking people to name their personal team of favourite Leafs. Not best, just guys you like or you associate with your fandom. Naming 13 forwards, 7 d, 3 goalies. If you want it to be guys you didn't see from the olden days...I mean, I can't stop you.

But here's mine

Clark-Sundin-Tucker
Andreychuk-Gilmour-Olcyzk
Stumpy-Matthews-Damphousse
Kulemin-Antropov-Borschevsky
Berezin

Lefevbre-Kaberle
Markov-Yushkevich
Ellett-Rouse
Rielly

Potvin
Joseph
Scrivens

 

[CarltonTheBear]

My fandom didn't start until the early 2000's era, so anyone before that wouldn't make the cut:

Roberts-Sundin-Mogilny
Antropov-Matthews-Nylander
Tucker-Kadri-Corson
Kulemin-Grabovski-Berezin
Thomas

Kaberle-McCabe
Leetch-Svehla
Gardiner-Yushkevich
Colaiacovo

Joseph
Belfour
Reimer

Coach: Quinn
GM: Quinn

Some notes on some of the more maybe random players...

Corson: I think my earliest playoff memories were of seeing Corson get matched up against Yashin in those Islanders playoffs and just shadowing him the entire time

Leetch/Svehla: While not here long, they were probably the two best defencemen I saw play as a Leaf. What I would have given to see another full season of Brian Leetch as a Leaf. Even in his mid-30s he was still dominant. Damn lockout

Colaiacovo: As a 2001 draft pick, he was the first Leafs selection that I really latched onto and watched grow from being picked, to his time in the juniors and WJCs, to playing with the Baby Leafs, and eventually becoming a Leaf.

Thomas: He just barely sneaks in. Growing up playing foot hockey or whatever you want to call it at recess we would always pick a NHLer whose name was like ours and we'd be that player. My last name is definitely nowhere to be seen in the NHL, but Thomas is my first name (uh, nice to meet you folks) so I would always be him. First player I was a fan of I guess due to that.

 

[Stebro]

Interesting idea, here's mine (started to follow the leafs 92-93):

Andreychuk-Gilmour-Thomas
Roberts-Sundin-Mogilny
Tucker-Matthews-Nolan
Clark-Kadri-Hyman
Nieuwendyk

Yushkevich-Svehla
Kaberle-McCabe
Rielly-Rouse
Lefevbre

Cujo
Potvin
Andersen

Clark-Kadri-Hyman would be really fun to watch

 

[Kin]

Coach: Quinn
GM: Quinn

I had intended to include those so kudos. For me it'd be Burns coaching with Quinn GMing.

Just a quick story about my fandom. When I was a really young kid(like 4 or 5) my dad would get tickets to 2 games a year for me and each of my siblings(Back then, through a stockbroker friend he'd bought one share of stock in the team) and would let us choose which teams we wanted to see. My older brother always chose the Oilers and Habs and, for some reason, I always chose the Penguins and Whalers.

So that's where the Clark, Damphousse and Olcyzk stuff is from. For a lousy team, they were the bright spots I latched onto(although I wasn't really a Leafs fan back then, my two favourite players were Lemieux and Kevin Dineen for some reason). It really wasn't until 92-93 that I really got into the game on my own which is why a third of the guys I chose are from that team.

 

[Strangelove]

All of your lists are missing playoff superstar Lonny Bohonos.

Edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jEjqYpDofc

 

[Kin]

Interesting idea, here's mine (started to follow the leafs 92-93):

Andreychuk-Gilmour-Thomas
Roberts-Sundin-Mogilny
Tucker-Matthews-Nolan
Clark-Kadri-Hyman
Nieuwendyk

Almo and Kadri are good choices. Probably just behind Grabo as being late cuts. Roberts...I don't know. It's probably not fair to him but I always felt like the way some columnists liked to play him off Sundin probably soured me on him a little.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Clark/Sundin/Mogilny
Vaive/Gilmour/Thomas
Foligno/Niewendyk/Andreychuk
Komarov/Roberts/Anderson
Leeman

Salming / Iafrate
Kaberle / Markov
Rielly / Gill
Macoun

Potvin
Wregget
Bester

Coach - Burns
GM - Quinn

 

[Andy007]

Caputi      J Mitchell      Craig
Modin      Manderville    Kristich
Battaglia    Allison          Warriner
Cereda      Hanson        Pearson

    Richardson        Berehowsky
    Eriksson            Finger
      Aulie                Jackman

            La Forest
            Raycroft

Mike Murphy
Gord Stellick

:-X :-X

 

[Highlander]

Roberts-Matthews-Nylander
Mahovlich-Sittler-McDonald
Vaive-Keon-Armstrong
Clark-Sundin-Mogilny
Gilmour

Turnbull-Salming
Horton-Stanley
Yushkevich-Baun
Kaberle (or Rielly)

Bower
Palmeteer
Anderson

Yes, I did see all of these players play. 

 

[Guilt Trip]

Roberts-Matthews-Nylander
Mahovlich-Sittler-McDonald
Vaive-Keon-Armstrong
Clark-Sundin-Mogilny
Gilmour

Turnbull-Salming
Horton-Stanley
Yushkevich-Baun
Kaberle (or Rielly)

Bower
Palmeteer
Anderson

Yes, I did see all of these players play. 

Great team..

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Roberts-Matthews-Nylander
Mahovlich-Sittler-McDonald
Vaive-Keon-Armstrong
Clark-Sundin-Mogilny
Gilmour

Turnbull-Salming
Horton-Stanley
Yushkevich-Baun
Kaberle (or Rielly)

Bower
Palmeteer
Anderson

Yes, I did see all of these players play.

I wanted to put Bower down so badly. I never saw him play but he was my goalie coach for a couple years.

 

[Kin]

Gill
Macoun

Todd Gill has a weird and special place in my heart because he's the first Leaf I met as a kid, getting his autograph at Canada's Wonderland.

Actually, come to think of it the first Leaf I met was Eddie Shack in the St. Lawrence Market but I had no idea who he was. Todd Gill though.

I also think it's kind of interesting that between all of us we've mentioned everyone on the 92-93 blueline except for poor, forgotten Dmitri Mironov.

 

[Arn]

This will give me something to think about during the quiet parts of my first work from home day tomorrow! I?ve a few ideas but want to make sure I get the balance of my lineup right. I think some ?better? players might miss out, sacrifices for balance.

I?ll be going back to around 2001/2 or so for my team but my first real, proper season was the Leetch/Francis/Nolan season

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Gill
Macoun

Todd Gill has a weird and special place in my heart because he's the first Leaf I met as a kid, getting his autograph at Canada's Wonderland.

Actually, come to think of it the first Leaf I met was Eddie Shack in the St. Lawrence Market but I had no idea who he was. Todd Gill though.

I also think it's kind of interesting that between all of us we've mentioned everyone on the 92-93 blueline except for poor, forgotten Dmitri Mironov.

I never really thought Gill was an amazing player. He played with an intensity I always appreciated. Same goes for Markov.

 

[Arn]

Well, Owen Nolan goes into my team by default due to the Belfast link. And really it's mostly a mix of the early-mid 2000s team and the current team. I struggle with left wing though so I'm putting Nylander there since he's playing there now. I've taken Belak as my spare defenceman purely for intangibles/his character.

But other than that I've decided to go with:

Belfour (Porbably still my all time favourite Leaf and the only one I've ever had put on a jersey)
Andersen (Pips CuJo cos I only really had one season of CuJo)

McCabe - Kaberle
Leetch - Rielly
Marchment - Gardiner

Belak

Throwing Marchment in there on the bottom pair for the Polak effect. Not sure why but I'd have loved to get Ian White in somewhere.


Nylander - Sundin - Kessel
Tucker - Matthews - Mogilny
Van Riemsdyk - Kadri - Marner
Roberts - Antropov - Nolan

Grabovski

Top line is possibly a defensive nightmare, but it should score a poo-load. Third line should feast on easy match ups.


Half the fun of that was reading over old rosters and seeing some random names that brought flashbacks and hadn't been thought of since - Lebda, Broll, Wilm, Suglobov etc etc

 

[Kin]

Nylander - Sundin - Kessel
Tucker - Matthews - Mogilny
Van Riemsdyk - Kadri - Marner
Roberts - Antropov - Nolan

Kessel is a tough one for me. I have a lot of affection for him as a player but a lot of that came after his time here. When I think about him as a Leaf it's difficult to separate my respect for his talent with the trade that brought him here, the recognition that a team with Kessel as their best guy wasn't going to accomplish much and the way the team fell apart near the end. I'm glad he had all the success he did but I'm conflicted about his Leafdom.

Two guys who haven't been mentioned, and not surprisingly because they were deeply unspectacular players, are Stajan and Ponikarovsky. Both are guys who I think really got every inch out of their talent and worked as hard as they could, even when the team was a lackluster mess.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I really wanted to fit Stajan in but he just missed the cut.

Poni I really did like an appreciate but I was just always more of an Antropov fan so he kinda took the spotlight there.

Antropov-Sundin-Poni was a pretty fun line to watch during some tough Leafs days.

 

[Zee]

Clark-Gilmour-Vaive
Andreychuk-Sittler-Marner
JVR-Matthews-Tucker
Roberts-Sundin-Leeman
Borchevsky

Salming-Gill
Kaberle-Levebre
Ellet-Iafrate
Macoun

Palmateer
Potvin
Joseph

Pretty fun exercise.  Alot of 80s/90s for me with a few currents thrown in.

 

[bustaheims]

I don't think it'll come as much of a surprise that my team is pretty similar to many of the others here. I'm also not particularly paying attention to what side winders/defencemen played.

Clark-Sundin-Kessel
Andreychuk-Gilmour-Olcyzk
Nylander-Matthews-Damphousse
Kulemin-Antropov-Mogilny
Berezin

Ellett-Kaberle
Iafrate-Yushkevich
Rielly-Gill
McCabe

Potvin
Joseph
Belfour

Coach: Quinn
GM: Fletcher (the first time around)

A lot of my list is based around who was the most entertaining to watch, on top of who I have the best memories of.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

My favourite line of all time was The Hound Line. I'm actually ticked that I forgot Courtnall on my original line up.