The 5 most fan-popular Maple Leafs in my lifetime—and the most revered. And...who do you think is the most popular Leaf now?

Every fan, or at least just about every fan, has their “favourites”.  Not just their favourite sports, or teams that they have a preferred—or in some cases quite passionate—rooting interest in.  They also quite often have a personal individual favourite, usually on the team they care about most.

While some fans may root for a fairly obscure guy that is not a household name, or someone that is well-known but is more of a “lesser-light” in terms of production or fan and media attention, when enough of a team’s faithful like the same player, that individual can become awfully popular in a hurry—and sometimes for a long, long time.

When I think back over the time that I have been following the Maple Leafs (and that goes back to the late 1950s) I can immediately think of a dozen or so players who really warmed the hearts of Leaf supporters everywhere.  It was sometimes because of their goal-scoring ability, but just as often it was due to the type of player they were—and the kind of effort they gave just about every night.  There is no question that the ability to bring you out of your seat, either at home or in the building itself, can help.  But that is usually only part of the equation.  We also like our players to have an un-wavering work ethic, and to be willing to take one for the team, as it were.

So for me, when I look back and try to determine, albeit very un-scientifically, who were the most popular Leafs in my lifetime of cheering for the blue and white, it’s not easy to break it down to only the “top 5”.  There have been so many Leafs who have inspired deep and abiding support.

But let’s give it a shot.  And yes, I will rank them in the order of most popular first.  (By all means share your thoughts.  I don’t expect anything close to unanimous agreement on a subject like this!)

1) Doug Gilmour

I’m not sure there has ever been a, say, 24-month window of time when a player was more beloved in Toronto than Doug Gilmour.  Truth is, half of Leaf world probably barely knew who he was before Cliff Fletcher traded for him in the early 1990s.  That was the case, even though the little center was a brilliant junior player in Cornwall and played so well for the St. Louis Blues before later winning a Cup with the Calgary Flames in 1989.  The first time I really took serious notice of him was a mid-'80s playoff game (not against the Leafs), when he had something like 5 assists for St. Louis and was the best player on the ice. I kept thinking—whoever this guy is, he sure sees the ice well.

We all know that the two wonderful springtime Leaf “runs” under Pat Burns in 1993 and ’94 came up a bit short, but it’s hard to imagine one individual working harder than Gilmour did in those years.  Bobby Clarke may be the only guy I’ve seen that worked even harder than Gilmour.  Even though Gimour was only here for what, parts of 5 seasons or so, he engendered a passion you don’t see often- even in hockey-mad Toronto.

To this day, if you say “Dougie”, everyone around Toronto knows what you mean.  So, he’s number1.

2) Dave Keon

For me, Keon remains the finest all-around Maple Leaf I’ve ever seen because he consistently did so many things well for so many seasons.  For 15 years he did just about everything a player can do.  He checked the best centers on the other team, killed penalties, put up points, rarely ever took even a minor penalty himself (thus saving his team and teammates in the process), and in his later years, made marginal wingers better than that. 

Still, despite helping the team win those 4 Cups in the 1960s, some Leaf faithful became agitated with Keon because of his supposed “stubborn” (I don’t see it that way, as I’ve posted here before…) refusal to make peace with the organization since he was shoved out of town by then-owner Harold Ballard in the summer of 1975.

But unless you were alive in the early ‘60s—before all-sports radio, round-the-clock sports coverage, social media, Twitter and everything else—you can’t understand how popular “Davey” Keon was. He was our answer to Montreal’s Henri Richard and more often than not was a Hab-killer—which made we Leaf fans of that generation love him all the more.  One of the fastest (and smallest) NHL players of his era when he arrived on the scene in the fall of 1960, he was, in my mind, one of the best all-around players in hockey in his first half-dozen years in the league, between 1961 and 1967.  He was still a wonderful player into the ‘70s, having some renaiscance years with the Leafs, especially in 1970-’71 and 1972-’73. 

If you heard, as I did, Leaf fans in Maple Leaf Gardens shout “we want Davey” after he was already in the dressing room after the Leafs beat Detroit for the Cup in Game 5 in the spring of ’63 (he came back out onto the ice to take a bow...it was amazing to see), you know how popular he was in those early days.  So, he’s second on my list.

3) Darryl Sittler

Sittler’s career was so much more than that 10-point night against the Burins in the mid ‘70s, though that is often what he is best remembered for in a Leaf uniform.  In fact, for me, I was impressed from the get-go with the way he earned his time with the club after being a first-round draft pick in the summer of 1970.  He overcome a serious injury in his rookie season, played the wing and went on to become team captain - and a true team leader - before the 1975-’76 season. 

In fact, I was even more impressed when, at the press conference introducing him as captain, he slammed owner Harold Ballard for the way he treated Normie Ullman and Dave Keon, after the Leaf owner had run both respected veterans out of town.

In the mid and later-‘70s, there was not, at least that I recall, a more popular Leaf than Sittler.  How well-known was he?  The popular Canadian comedy team of “Wayne & Shuster” invoked Darryl’s name in a comedy skit on one of their TV specials,  During the bit (about kids in their neighbourhood many years before) they wondered something along the lines of  “whatever became of that little Darryl Sittler anyway…”.  It drew a huge laugh because Sittler was one of the most popular guys in the country, especially after scoring an huge goal to help Canada win the first-ever Canada Cup in 1976.

That he, too (like Keon before him), was treated shabbily in the end by management (Imlach, who had returned as General Manager of the Maple Leafs for a second time) and ownership (Ballard, of course) did not diminish his legend.  He certainly deserves to be at least number 3 on this list.

4) Frank Mahovlich

It’s hard to describe just how excited Leaf fans were during the 1960-’61 season when Frank Mahovlich was on fire and looked certain to break Rocket Richard’s single-season mark of 50 goals in a season.  Imagine if Phil Kessel was somehow "on pace" to break Wayne Gretzky's single-season record of 92 goals or whatever that remarkable total was years ago?  How on fire would Leafland be nowadays?

With Red Kelly, the ex-Red Wing great (then converted to center) guiding him, the “Big M” scored at a record pace until Kelly was hurt in the latter stages of the season.  Mahovlich cooled off and unfortunately just missed the record, finishing the season with a still amazing 48 goals—a Maple Leaf single-season team record at the time.  (Montreal “Boom Boom” Geoffrion actually slipped under the radar a bit - though I don’t think you can ever really do that in Montreal -  and passed Mahovlich to tie the Rocket’s mark.)

Mahovlich never came close to duplicating that feat with Toronto (tough he later did with the Red Wings) but he certainly helped the Leafs in terms of their Cup success in the ‘60s.  His long-striding, swooping solo rushes were a thing of beauty, and while he was sometimes booed in Toronto (he was the classic hockey enigma, the superstar who made things look easy, but also appeared lazy when things weren’t going so well), he was still an immensely popular Maple Leaf.  I’m guessing there aren’t many Leaf fans who don’t remember where they were when Mahovlich was traded to Detroit before the end of the 1967-’68 NHL season.

Now still in the Canadian Senate, if I’m not mistaken, Mahovlich was one of the great Leafs of all-time.  While he was sometimes maybe misunderstood and under-appreciated, to me, he is on the list.

5) Wendel Clark

While it did not quite compare with Wayne Gretzky being traded away by the Oilers, Wendel Clark being dealt to the Nordiques after two consecutive trips to the “final-four” on behalf of the blue and white was a tear-filled day for a lot of Leaf fans.

While Clark’s commitment had been challenged somewhat by an impatient Harold Ballard (and even many Leaf fans) during some of his lengthy injury-related absences, he was nonetheless a well and deeply-loved Maple Leaf throughout his three separate tenures with the franchise.  He had that wicked shot, hammered guys all over the ice, and of course would tangle with anyone, though he was not really a huge guy.

The most memorable Wendel moment was no doubt his Game 6 hat-trick in the 1993 semi-finals against the Kings (if not that, perhaps his toe-to-toe scrap earlier in the series with Marty McSorley, while “protecting” Gilmour).  A lot of us thought when Game 6 was in overtime that we just might get to the finals that year against Montreal. History reminds us that we didn't.  But Clark did everything he could to get us there.

The fact that Clark is still connected with the Leafs and does commercials as a spokesperson for a number of companies and causes speaks to his everlasting popularity.

All this said, to me, the most revered  and beloved Leaf of my lifetime has to have been (and still is) Johnny Bower.  There are so many aspects to his life and hockey story that are charming.  That he always lied about his age, for starters.  That he did not make the NHL until later in life, and was not an established NHL’er in his mid-30s. Imlach worked him harder and harder as Bower aged. Johnny always came across like the guy-next-door.

He was a huge part of all those 1960s championships.  He played without a mask (imagine facing Bobby Orr and Bobby and Dennis Hull without a mask) until his last ever NHL game, which was during the 1969-’70 season.  Upon retirement, he was always part of the organization in some fashion—as a scout for the team for years and a sometimes goalie coach.

To this day, now in his late 80s, he will evidently gladly be part of the upcoming Winter Classic in Michigan in January.  He remains the same down-to-earth man he was as a hero to Leaf fans in the ‘60s.  He is accessible, still quotable, and still every inch the living legend.

And still the most revered Leaf in my lifetime.

I recognize that there are all kinds of other names that could be on this list of "most popular" Maple Leafs.  Long-time Leaf captain George Armstrong (who might be on the list if he did not avoid any and all personal publicity; he was such a highly-regarded individual), for example.  Yet because he is indeed so reclusive people don’t get to see him often, unlike Bower, and he tends to be forgotten just a bit in Leaf lore.

Then there is Tim Horton and  Eddie Shack.  Paul Henderson, given his Team Canada fame while he was with the Leafs.  Lanny McDonald.  Mike Palmateer.  Curtis Joseph.  And of course, in more recent times, Mats Sundin.

I guess right now, I’d say James Reimer just might be the most popular Leaf—especially if he returns healthy and plays as he did in his rookie season.  The combination of being a Leaf goalie and a genuinely nice-seeming young person makes him a well-liked Maple Leaf, for sure.

Maybe it’s Phil Kessel, but he still seems to have the Mahovlich-like lightning-rod aspect to his game, but without the Big M's 4 Cups.

While this is not a debate, I feel pretty comfortable naming the five I mentioned today.  But as I said above, fire away—I look forward to hearing from you!