Best and Worst Skaters in Leafs history ....

[Gary Nylund]

I just read through this thread and I'm surprised that not one single person has mentioned Mats Sundin. Apologies if I missed it but man, that's a huge oversight IMO, he's right up there with the best of them.

IIRC I was at Maple Leaf Gardens when Sundin played for the first time ever wearing a Leaf jersey. It was an exhibition game against Dallas and I remember thinking that Sundin and Modano were on a completely different level, by comparison it looked like everyone else was skating in mud.

 

[Teeder Keon]

Going back to older days, Syl Apps was a superlative skater. At one point, a contest was set up featuring the top skaters of each of the then seven NHL teams. Apps won.

As you can see from my avatar, I have nothing against George Armstrong, but in his last few seasons his skating was painful to watch. I can still see him in my minds eye all but crawling down the right wing to score the empty net goal that clinched the 67 Cup. It seemed to take an eternity.

Allan Stanley, from the same vintage, also looked like he was skating on snowshoes in his later years.

Reilly and Kapanen from the present team are about as good as I have seen in recent years.

Bad skater? Pick your favourite enforcer.

great takes
Apps is still one of my favourites

 

[MSZ]

Since no one mentioned these guys...

Good

Sylvain Cote

Absolute worst

Chris McAllister

 

[Teeder Keon]

I just read through this thread and I'm surprised that not one single person has mentioned Mats Sundin. Apologies if I missed it but man, that's a huge oversight IMO, he's right up there with the best of them.

IIRC I was at Maple Leaf Gardens when Sundin played for the first time ever wearing a Leaf jersey. It was an exhibition game against Dallas and I remember thinking that Sundin and Modano were on a completely different level, by comparison it looked like everyone else was skating in mud.

How about Gary Nylund ? Ha ha

 

[Gary Nylund]

How about Gary Nylund ? Ha ha

Haha, I was thinking about him but didn't wanna toot my own horn. Man, he was good at so many things, still makes me sad to think about what could of been.

 

[crump]

So many good and bad memories in this thread. Maloney comment is a classic.

 

[slozo]

There's not nearly enough Dave Andreychuk love (hate?) for worst skater in this thread.

Loved watching Gartner skate personally.

Among top line players, no one could hold a candle to Dave Andreychuk - for worst skater. Last player to be inducted into the HHOF who couldn't skate backwards. Thank goodness for him he had phenomenal hands and net presence.

Before his hip fell apart, for me the absolute smoothest and silkiest skater was Gardiner. If only he had hockey sense.

Kaberle was great for his time, but can't compare to this generation of skaters.

 

[Teeder Keon]

Haha, I was thinking about him but didn't wanna toot my own horn. Man, he was good at so many things, still makes me sad to think about what could of been.

I know , another potentially great Leaf , with medical issues that shortened their careers or derailed them ala Clark , Nylund , Berard even Palmateer with his knees

 

[Beaumaris]

Best = Mogilny

Worst = Antropov

Mogilny

 

[Beaumaris]

Me for sure.

You’ve never seen me skate I guess.

 

[Teeder Keon]

You’ve never seen me skate I guess.

Marshy was my skating instructor

 

[Gary Nylund]

I know , another potentially great Leaf , with medical issues that shortened their careers or derailed them ala Clark , Nylund , Berard even Palmateer with his knees

Yeah I was pretty young at the time so maybe I'm remembering him as better than he really was, can't be 100% sure about that. Having said that, he had the strength of a Pronger and was a super smooth skater, kind of like I dunno, Rielly maybe? It was a long time ago but yeah, if you could picture Rielly with the strength and toughness of a Pronger, that's kind of what Nylund was like. So sad.

I was a HUGE Palmateer fan, he could stake too IIRC, at least he did love to skate out to poke check shooters.

Mogilny

Yeah he was amazing. I'm gonna try to put together a top 10 list, restricting it to guys I actually saw. In no particular order then:

Mogilny
Sundin
Keon
Ellis
Gardiner
Marner
Courtnall
Rielly
Nylund
Kapanen

 

[Notsince67]

Best and worst skaters in Leafs History to present .....

here’s a reprieve of some downer Posts including my own for a bit of fun ..

Marshy reminded me of how bad of a skater he was ( sorry Marshy ) but how great of a team player as well ...

it got me thinking about some really poor skaters that the leafs have had in their history and then I thought of some of the terrific skaters we’ve had as well ..

Can you think of some players that fall into each of these categories ?

here’s some of mine for now


Best

Courtnall
Marner
Rielly
Dave Keon


Worst
Marshy ( Sorry ) lol
Dave Dunn
Dave Hutchinson
Dan Maloney
Teeder Kennedy
George Armstrong


I’ll add more as I think of them

Not the worse but phaneuf couldnt skate backwards by my standards

 

[Teeder Keon]

Jim Benning was a pretty good skater

Trevor Johanson and Fred Boimstruck were not

 

[The Iceman]

I might be in the minority but I would have Nylund closer to the worst skaters than best skaters. Big bulky slow guy.

It might just be the haunting memory that 2 and 3 picks after GN went Scott Stevens and Phil Housley....OUCH

 

[ITM]

On a side...Neiyher worst nor best but odd...Anyone Remember Jim Benning having a bit of a weird stride or was that my Salming adoration manifesting a bit of a mean streak?

 

[ITM]

Jim Benning was a pretty good skater

Trevor Johanson and Fred Boimstruck were not

Hilarious. Didn’t see this before I posted (via mobile).

 

[Antropovsky]

For a big enforcer Wade Belak was a pretty good skater.

 

[ToneDog]

One of the worst skaters was Dan Maloney

Two of the best are Kappy and Dermott. Paul Henderson told us that Keon was a great skater and how he came into training camp flying.

 

[The Iceman]

On a side...Neiyher worst nor best but odd...Anyone Remember Jim Benning having a bit of a weird stride or was that my Salming adoration manifesting a bit of a mean streak?

He had such a boy bod when he came to the Leafs. Very weak.
Skated like an early Gretzky hunched forward. Not a great skater.

 

[Stephen]

Two really bad skaters in recent memory were Ron Francis (near retirement) and Jason Allison (I think he completed his shootout attempt vs Ottawa somewhere around 2017).

 

[LaPlante94]

Someone who was before my time but I'll say with confidence as one of the best skaters was Leeman. Saw him play in a NHL alumni game when I was younger and this was probably almost 10 years after he retired and he was still flying out there so I can only imagine him in his prime.

 

[67leafs]

Gary Leeman wasn’t bad

 

[moon111]

Dave Andreychuk, Hal Gill, Jason Allison, Brad Marsh, Nik Antropov, Garth Butcher... a lot of big guys or stay-at-home defenders.

Russ Courtnall, Alexander Mogilny, Michael Grabner, Kapanen.

 

[socko]

Best - Bryan Berard
Worst - Nik Antropov