Minnesota memories? Not many, but Dave Keon did score a milestone marker in the Twin Cities

Signing college free-agents can only help.  You give up no assets and don't have to use a draft choice.  If the players work out, it's all good.  If they don't, you have not invested much.

Importantly, you are acquiring a player way ahead in terms of his development curve.  At 21 or 22, players are far deeper into their career and certainly more mature physically and in terms of life experience.

So Burke's dipping into that pool yet again (Tyler Benner this time) works for me.  More and more teams are doing it, but Burke has been particularly aggressive in this regard during his tenure with the Leafs.

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There is no real rivalry to speak of between the Leafs at the Minnesota franchise, certainly none with the current Wild team.  The Leafs rarely seem to even play Minnesota under the current schedule configuration, so it would be hard to build up much between the two sides.

That said, historically, dating back to the old North Star franchise, there was at least a connection, if not a legitimate rivalry, between the then expansion franchise and the history-rich Maple Leafs.

When Minnesota joined the NHL in 1967, some ex-Leafs soon populated the roster.  Grinding winger J.P. Parise (Devils’ forward Zach’s dad, I believe) became a North Star “star”.  He had been ever so-briefly a member of the blue and white, and was eventually good enough that he became a key figure with Team Canada in 1972 during the classic Summit Series.

Ex-Leaf and later New York Ranger goaltender Cesare Maniago (click on his name to read one of my earlier stories about Maniago) became a mainstay in goal for the North Stars, one of the really popular athletes in the Twin Cities.  Center Murray Oliver, who had his best years with Boston before coming to the Leafs in the post-’67 Cup deal for Eddie Shack, had some really nice seasons with the North Stars.

Forward Ray Cullen had some good years with the North Stars in those years.  He was the younger brother of long-time Maple Leafs Brian and Barry Cullen.  Walt McKechnie, who played with Toronto later under Roger Neilson, spent time in the early expansion days with Minnesota, too.

One thing I seem to recall is that, during the 1972-’73 season, then Leaf captain Dave Keon, seen at right, scored his all-time franchise record-tying or breaking goal in Minnesota.  I’m not a hundred per cent certain which it was.  George Armstrong, the esteemed long-time captain and leader of the Leafs, had established the record of 296 career regular-season goals, having retired after the 1970-’71 season.  Keon beat future Hall-of-Famer Gump Worsley, then in the later days of his illustrious career, in the Minnesota net.  (Historical note:  Keon held the Leaf record until his totals were surpassed by Darryl Sittler.)

In any event, I am perhaps not remembering some great moments in Leaf-Minnesota history, but for me it has been a largely pedestrian, non-rivalry kind of relationship.  (Didn’t we get hammered by the North Stars in a short playoff series when they were building a good young team in the early ‘80s?  Bobby Smith, Steve Payne, Brad Maxwell and some others were becoming a pretty good squad.  But that hardly established a rivalry, just a lousy memory for Leaf fans.)

Having said all this, while there is not much history of note here, it’s a huge game Tuesday night (yet another one) for a Leaf team that believes it is playoff-bound.  They should have enough motivation without having to rely on a historical rivalry to get them up for this one.