You can add any 2 past Leafs to the team right now

[meefer]

Haha. Absolutely, I feel ya. Not that I'd want either of those guys on the team today but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy a good ol' fashioned hockey fight.

Having spent my adolescence growing up in small town, farm country Ontario around guys like Aaron Downey (one time enforcer in the league), you come to appreciate the old pugilist side of hockey - something ingrained into the fabric of the community.

Being a city slicker myself, while we had the odd tilt, I'd be lying if I didn't say I know where you're coming from. Heck, even in baseball, when we had tournies up Sudbury way, those small town teams were rock hard and nasty b*stards...good fun. Cheers.

 

[deltamachine]

Gary Roberts
Dmitri Yushkevich

Gary Roberts to bring internal accountability.
Yushkevich was a tank back there.

 

[8816 others]

The other day O-dog was saying prime Yushkevich would help with Sandin's development.


Sundin would be my 1st choice. Finally with young talented wingers.

I'd have to recheck but I believe Belfour has had the best goalie stats post expansion for this team. That 04 team was probably the best built to win in that time. He likely would have got us there the following season if not for the lockout. I'm not sold on Andersen.

 

[tmlms13]

Anyone that plays defense

 

[Ratboy]

Clark and salming

 

[Northernguy10]

Clark and salming

Exactly the two I would add...

 

[ITM]

Dave Keon: Bona fide champion. Regarded by many as the best Leaf to ever play the game. Let him take the C and the room so as to impel what virtue is sleeping in our roster and wake it up. All of a sudden, skill meets will.

Borje Salming: Perfect for the modern game. A sense of calm and selflessness that our group could benefit from. Could have been Tim Horton. But I think Salming's mix of skill and underlying grit make for the kind of leader Muzzin would endorse, Reilly would emulate and everyone else would follow.

 

[The CyNick]

Kadri and Hainsey

 

[Gardiner]

Gilmour
Dmitri Yushkevich

 

[93gilmour93]

Gilmour and Roberts

 

[Alamo Leafer]

Kaberle & Salming

 

[The Examiner]

Tucker and a clone of Tucker.

 

[Boxscore]

Tucker and a clone of Tucker.

How about his BIL... Shayne Corson?

 

[BrainyBomber]

Horton and Sundin.

Move JT to LW and solves our biggest holes RD and LW.

Horton is the ideal all around RD for us and pairs perfectly with Reilly.

Btw Google Salming's daughter. Giggidy

 

[qqaz]

Salming and Horton. But I could be convinced to switch Horton to either Gilmour or Matts.

The 2 defenders would give us a Stanley Cup quality defence group. But the thought of, say, Matthews-Tavares-Sundin down the middle would be hard to pass up. That's the best any team would/could ever conceivably be at the C position.

To be honest, Kapanen and Mikheyev would be about as good a duo of wingers as Matts ever had. But just imagine the insanity of seeing him play with Marner. Unreal.

 

[Boxscore]

To be honest, Kapanen and Mikheyev would be about as good a duo of wingers as Matts ever had. But just imagine the insanity of seeing him play with Marner. Unreal.

I keep taking it a step further--could you imaging Sundin and Matthews together? I mean, Lindros and LeClair pretty much wreaked havoc on the league during the LOD years. I don't know how a team could contain a line with a 6-5, 230 Sundin and a 6-3, 220 Matthews--with their size, skill, strength, ability to shoot, cycle and protect the puck. It would be a nightmare. Say you add Nylander to the LW--you now have a burner with excellent hands brining that dimension on the line. Scary. With that line, in today's game, I think the Leafs are spotted 1-2 goals the second the puck drops. Even if a team exhausts itself scheming around the primary goal of stopping that line--the Leafs roll out Tavares and Marner to break the will of the opposition.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Tim Horton was more of an offensive threat than a lot of people know. Prior to expansion and the WHA watering down the talent (from six to twenty teams), and changing the role of the defenceman (Doug Harvey and Horton were both told they would be fined every time they carried the puck across center ice), he was fifth all-time in both goals and points by a defenceman.

I think Terry Sawchuk should be considered too. Second all-time in shutouts, and actually more shutouts per game played than Brodeur (I know, hard to compare different eras).

You could also add Red Kelly, the only player to win eight Cups without playing for Montreal; four as a defenceman with Detroit, and four more as a forward with the Leafs.

Considering our current needs, I would go with the King and Superman (Salming and Horton).

 

[81Leafs50]

Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour

 

[93LEAFS]

Gilmour for his infectious tenacity and two-way play. Salming because even if he is a left-shot adding a truly elite defender can't hurt.

 

[93LEAFS]

You can't go wrong with 2 of:

Sundin
Gilmour
Salming
Clark
Roberts


In the lower rent district how about Macoun and Lefebvre?

In the lower-rent district, I'd love a Dmitri Yushkevich. Just a punishing hitter with a solid defensive game. Right shot doesn't hurt either.

 

[Tak7]

Salming - obvious for obvious reasons
Roberts - obvious for obvious reasons

 

[Lahey]

Tucker and Salming.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I think some of these players that people are suggesting wouldnt even make the NHL today. It's such a different game.

Kassel could hang though, so he'd be one of mine for sure.

I could agree to an extent, if you had to time machine someone from the 60s, because the game is different. Someone like Allen Stanley, who was a pretty slow skater even then, would have a lot of trouble, but a really good skater like Horton would be ok. And someone like Bower or Sawchuk, if they played with the current equipment and style, might be fantastic. When I played goal I had leather and horsehair pads and leather gloves, exactly the same as Bower's. I borrowed my son's modern pads and gloves one game, and was amazed at the pucks I stopped that I hadn't reached before. His pads and gloves combined weighted less than one of my pads.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Looks like Salming is the runaway winner, with Sundin and Horton fighting for second, and Clark, Gilmour, Tucker, and Roberts next.

I think Salming and Horton would make the biggest difference, but I'd be willing to take any of the above.

 

[Bomber0104]

From my generation only:

The obvious is Gary Roberts.

Less obvious, I'll go with Francois Beauchemin.