Toggle sidebar

Leafs All-Time Team Vote: Second Line Centre

Jimmy Firecracker

Jimmy Firecracker

Fire Sheldon.
Mar 30, 2010
36,248
35,528
Mississauga
With the Leafs Centennial Season coming up, I think it'd be interesting to see who Leafs fans would vote for when creating an All-Time team. After 100 years and 1000's of players, many greats have donned the blue and white and represented the city of Toronto. Who makes the cut and who doesn't when it comes to creating a team of the greatest Leafs ever?

Rules:

1. Players must have played a minimum of three seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

2. Players must be voted on for their respective positions, so the polls will only feature players in their natural positions (defensemen exempt, fretting over left D vs right D is a bit much).

3. Consider what these players did in their time as Leafs. The rest of their career doesn't matter.

Current options for Leafs All-Time #2 C:

Syl Apps

Doug Gilmour

Red Kelly

Ted Kennedy

Dave Keon

Darryl Sittler


(If you have any player suggestions, just let me know in a post).

Current All-Time Roster:

Mahovlich-Sundin-Conacher
(#2LW)-(#2C)-(#2RW)
(#3LW)-(#3C)-(#3RW)
(#4LW)-(#4C)-(#4RW)

Salming-(#2D)
(#3D)-(#4D)
(#5D)-(#6D)

Bower
(#2G)
Click to read more...
 
stymie

stymie

Registered User
Oct 15, 2014
920
131
Side effect of Keon not giving a rats ass is a rats ass isn't given.
Sittler was a beast among beasts in the Jurassic age.
The 10 point game.
His dignity in the face of Ballard.
The Wheatabix & pizza commercials.
Sittler is a legend.
 

Ciao

Registered User
Jul 15, 2010
9,981
5,783
Toronto
Dougie was great but Darryl was even better.

How can we judge Teeder Kennedy and Syl Apps? Most of us are too young to have seen them play. The is some film, but it was a different game then.
 
BayStreetBully

BayStreetBully

Registered User
Oct 25, 2007
8,200
1,960
Toronto
Stronk said:
Side effect of Keon not giving a rats ass is a rats ass isn't given.
Sittler was a beast among beasts in the Jurassic age.
The 10 point game.
His dignity in the face of Ballard.
The Wheatabix & pizza commercials.
Sittler is a legend.
Click to expand...

I care that Keon gave us 4 cups, our last dynasty, and is the reason we have a tradition of winning despite a 50 year drought that followed.

Mork said:
Dougie was great but Darryl was even better.

How can we judge Teeder Kennedy and Syl Apps? Most of us are too young to have seen them play. The is some film, but it was a different game then.
Click to expand...

We can look at what they accomplished, how they fared during their moment in time with the cards they were dealt, along with testimonials by people who were around to watch them play- whether it be books, newspapers or oral.

I don't think you can discount anyone just because you haven't seen them play. I haven't seen any footage of Babe Ruth either, but I just accept it when people consider him the greatest of all time. Same with Gordie Howe.

On the other hand, I have no problem if someone wants to vote Sundin or Gilmour because that's all they know. Every player's time comes when there is no one left to have witnessed them. Apps and Kennedy are now historical figures. You have to go out of your way to understand why they were so great. Especially since- and older folks can prove me wrong if I'm indeed wrong- I sense that the Ballard-owned Leafs did a terrible job of not honouring them back when it would've mattered in the 70's and 80's to keep their legacy alive.
 
Mats13

Mats13

Registered User
Apr 22, 2015
6,429
5,639
Daisy Jane said:
Doug Gilmour is beating Keon. wowzer.
Click to expand...

Dougie wasn't a Leaf as long as the other options, but he peaked as a Leaf and it was one hell of a peak. So, that's the player people remember. Very few players hit the level of peak Dougie.

Having said that, this thread is for greatest Leafs, so you gotta go with the long time Leafs/career Leafs.
 

Quiksilver*

I'm always right.
Sep 1, 2003
1,961
0
Considering this is listed in the OP as one of the rules:

3. Consider what these players did in their time as Leafs. The rest of their career doesn't matter

With that in mind can anyone justify voting for Gilmour over Sittler and Keon?

Sittler 916 points in 844 games

Keon 858 points in 1062 games

Gilmour 452 points in 393 games.

Sittler and Keon sit 2 and 3 respectively on the Leafs all time points list, behind only Sundin.
 
tp71

tp71

Enjoy every sandwich
Feb 10, 2009
10,324
483
London
The sad part is that only one of Apps, Kennedy and Keon will end up on the top 4...
 
Bullseye

Bullseye

Registered User
Jun 14, 2012
6,931
370
Niagara
None of these players would be 2nd line on any Leafs team. They all represented an era and shouldn't be pitted against each other. They all deserve honour and respect for their careers not getting voted onto any 2nd line.

Respectfully, please leave it at Sundin and move on.
 
Mess

Mess

Global Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
86,976
12,001
Leafs Home Board
Bullseye said:
None of these players would be 2nd line on any Leafs team. They all represented an era and shouldn't be pitted against each other. They all deserve honour and respect for their careers not getting voted onto any 2nd line.

Respectfully, please leave it at Sundin and move on.
Click to expand...

Leafs Top line ignoring positions and having elite centres moved to the wing should have been

Syl Apps -- Dave Keon -- Ted Kennedy
Mahovlich -- Sundin -- Conacher

We should be filling the #3C spot debating between Sittler and Gilmour as who is #3 and who is #4.
 
Nithoniniel

Nithoniniel

Registered User
Sep 7, 2012
20,913
16,749
Skövde, Sweden
One thing that could be considered when judging an Apps versus a Sundin is how much hockey has expanded. Canadian hockey alone has grown a lot, not to mention US hockey and European import. The population of hockey players feeding the competition for Apps might have been one tenth as big as for a Sundin. Easier to be one of the best of ten people than it is to be one of the best of a hundred.

Mess said:
Leafs Top line ignoring positions and having elite centres moved to the wing should have been

Syl Apps -- Dave Keon -- Ted Kennedy
Mahovlich -- Sundin -- Conacher

We should be filling the #3C spot debating between Sittler and Gilmour as who is #3 and who is #4.
Click to expand...

Agreed. That's what I was thinking as well.
 
Drew311

Drew311

Makes The Pass
Oct 29, 2010
11,902
2,381
Voted Sittler. Dougie G was tempting but he just wasn't a Leaf long enough.
 

Banic

Registered User
Jun 23, 2010
2,522
0
Toronto
I love Dougie as much as the next guy ... but come on Keon, Sittler are definitely better choices right now.. and it could be said Apps is too.
 
Mess

Mess

Global Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
86,976
12,001
Leafs Home Board
Nithoniniel said:
One thing that could be considered when judging an Apps versus a Sundin is how much hockey has expanded. Canadian hockey alone has grown a lot, not to mention US hockey and European import. The population of hockey players feeding the competition for Apps might have been one tenth as big as for a Sundin. Easier to be one of the best of ten people than it is to be one of the best of a hundred.



Agreed. That's what I was thinking as well.
Click to expand...

Level of competition in a 6 league verses watered down 30 team league when it comes to point production in modern era and level of competition was taking the Canadian Olympic team roster and putting it up against any NHL roster in regular competition.

If you took all the players from 30 teams today and contracted the league to just 6 teams keeping only the best of the best that is what it was like in the past. It was like 6 traveling All-star teams playing against each other for a full season.

Case in point when Leafs won their last Cup in 1967 there were 10 players on that Cup winning team that were elected into the HHOF after their careers ended.

Hockey Hall of Famers: (10)
George Armstrong, Johnny Bower, Tim Horton, Red Kelly, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, Marcel Pronovost, Bob Pulford, Terry Sawchuk, Allan Stanley

1/2 the Leafs team at that time entered the HHOF as the best players in the NHL during their careers. Ditto for Detroit, Montreal, Boston etc. When the original 6 was around you would have future Hockey Hall of fame players playing on 3rd lines of good teams. This was a time when legends like Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull and Jean Beliveau ruled the NHL.

Teams in a washed down NHL today would be lucky to have 1 player heading the HHOF on average at best.
 
Last edited:
Lauro

Lauro

Charlie Conacher
Jun 28, 2008
3,018
1,021
Berlin
Embarrassing. It should be Apps, Keon, Kennedy, Sundin but will end up Sundin, Sittler, Gilmour, Keon on this board...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Ad

Latest posts

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom