The most important Maple Leaf this season? Here's my answer...

I’m not a big fan of the “who’s the best” discussions in sport, including hockey.  When I was a young hockey fan, the big debate in the late 1950s was “Who was the greatest—Gordie Howe of Rocket Richard?”.  I’ve never fully understood, I guess, how we can possibly make that kind of determination.   Great players obviously bring different traits to the table—and to their team—every night.  Some are offensively proficient in terms of scoring goals, some are great playmakers, others play a rugged game, are speedsters, tremendous checkers, leaders, whatever. Some are a little bit of everything.

I would say that Bobby Orr was the best player I’ve ever seen, no question, but beyond that rather subjective and very personal assessment, how can we say that Bobby Hull (right), for example, was better than Stan Mikita, or Jean Beliveau was “better” than little Henri Richard (his Hab teammate).  Was the younger Richard better than our Maple Leaf hero, Dave Keon, back in the 1960s?  Was Mario Lemieux “better” than Wayne Gretzky?  Was Denis Potvin “better” than Larry Robinson or Serge Savard or Brad Park?  They were all different, and all outstanding.

My point is, they were all fantastic players, supremely gifted and all of them had marvelous careers.  Now, if we want to shift the discussion a little and debate which player we might build a team around if we had to make a choice, or who we might select to start a new franchise, OK. That's a different debate, I think.

But if the discussion is simply who is “better”, how do we prove that?  Was Gretzky better than Messier when both were at their best? I don’t know how anyone can make that assessment. It’s all opinion.  I just see two incredible players, and say that I wish the Leafs had had one of them at least for a while.

Howe and Richard (left) were both remarkable talents.  How can you determine who was better?  Both were champions, but could not have been more different.  I'm sure not going to get into some kind of statistical debate.  Believe me, you could not measure the value of Richard to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1940s and '50s in terms of goals alone, as impressive as his pure "numbers" were. No "data" could do justice to his impact on that dressing room, that franchise, or that fan base.

In the same breath, Howe was truly "the man" for the Red Wing organization for 25 years.  It would be an injustice, in my view, to try and determine who was "better".

So in introducing my topic for today, I am a bit wary about how I phrase the question.  As we all know, the NHL has the much-esteemed Hart Trophy, awarded annually to the player deemed to be most valuable to his team throughout the course of the regular season.  But even that definition leads to nuanced debates about what that means, and distinctions there might be regarding how we define “value”.

Recognizing that interpretation conundrum, can I just say that am looking for your view today about which Maple Leaf has been the most “important” contributor to the team so far this season, now 26 already games into the shortened 48-game NHL schedule.

There are a number of candidates.  In fact, since this is an “opinion” question (aren’t most of them here?), anyone who has played for the blue and white this season might be in the running.  Every player has helped in some way to the team’s improvement in the standings from the end of last season.

If we are trying to look for candidates, though, a few names jump to mind.  In no particular order, I would throw the following names into the discussion hopper:

• Kessel
• van Riemsdyk
• Kadri
• Phaneuf
• McClement
• Grabovski
• Reimer
• Scrivens

Heck, I’d even throw Kostka’s name into the mix, for a very simple reason:  we expected nothing of this guy, and yet he has played well over 20 minutes a night and helped the team survive the early season loss of last year’s surprise, Jake Gardiner. That makes him an “important” Leaf this season, in my mind.

It’s the same with Mark Fraser.  I didn’t foresee him being with the Leafs, much less being a reliable stay-at-home defender who rubs out the opposition with a physicality that helps make the Leafs hard to play against. He has been an important cog so far. And while some eschew the value of the longstanding "plus/minus" stat - and no, I'm not a stats guy - being a plus _ at this point in the season is pretty impressive.

I’d place Randy Carlyle’s name into the mix, maybe even that of Rick St. Croix, the new goalie coach.  Their contributions have been “important” by today’s definition, eh? (As a point of reference, while the voting "numbers" weren't as high as some other recent polls at this site, Carlyle actually received a lot of "votes" on the topic of the most important Leaf so far this season in the VLM poll.  For the record, Reimer and Kadri led the balloting; interestingly, Carlyle stood third.  Kessel and Phaneuf received not a single tally...)

For me, the bottom line is that for a team to be successful, everyone has to make a contribution.  Everyone—regardless of how many minutes they play, or how many games they play with the big club.  But acknowledging that, for fun, let’s have the discussion:

When all is said and done, for me the guy -so far- is Reimer.  It all starts and stops in so many ways with goaltending.  If you get that, everything - the system, the coach, your teammates -  looks a lot better.  And for the most part, Reimer has been steady this season.  We've seen in the past many years that, when this franchise (like most any other) receives top flight netminding (Felix Potvin, Curtis Josehh) we can win.  When we don't, the impact across the roster is clear.

But who say you is the most “important” Maple Leaf so far this season?  There is no right answer- have your say.


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If you've by-passed some recent posts, I invite you to have a look at the links below.

Also, you have a standing invitation to check out our "Leaf Matters" podcast, co-hosted with Matteo Codispoti from We Want a Cup.  We've competed 42 episodes as I write this.  I always remind people that we are not professional broadcasters, just two long-time Maple Leaf followers looking to give fellow fans another "Leaf chat" option.  We've had some great guests on the program, from former Leafs like Pat Quinn, Mirko Frycer, Jim Dorey and Bob Nevin to mainstream media folks like Lance Hornby, Damien Cox, Mike Zeisberger and Adam Proteau.  We've also been joined by fantastic  bloggers, including Curt Snoddon from Blue Chip Prospects, Marco Perruzza from Hope in the Big Smoke, Rob Del Mundo from TMLfans and the talented duo from Maple Leaf Hot Stove, Anthony Petrielli, Jon Steitzer.  The show is available on iTunes and of course, on the growing PodAlmighty Network.  If you enjoy the chase, by all means give us a nice "rating" on iTunes and "like" us on the PodAlmighty site.

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Here are those story links:

• Gordie Howe turns 85 in a few days- some thoughts here
• Why I'm happy James Reimer has come back strong this season
• Keeping an eye on ex-Leaf Jonas Gustavsson
• How our weaknesses have not been exposed yet
• A nod to the "hated" Senator Daniel Alfredsson
• Is the progress we've seen real?

Thanks for visiting Vintage Leaf Memories.