Most skilled Leafs players that you have ever watched by position

[Suntouchable13]

Who are some of the most skilled Leafs players that you have ever watched by position? "Most skilled" does not necessarily mean the best players. The only condition is that they must have played at least one full season in a Leafs uni. So you can't mention guys like Ron Francis or Brian Leetch. You can also mention around what time you have started watching the Leafs.

I have started watching since about 2000-2001.
Goalie: Eddie the Eagle. He was so sound, he knew where to be in the crease at all times. Always looked so calm when making saves. Knew how to handle the puck too. Honourable mention goes to Freddy.

Defence: Tomas Kaberle. This guy was so skilled and an amazingly smooth skater. I liked the little head fake he used to do in order to get rid of a forechecker. Just a beautiful skater to watch. I don't even think guys like Rielly and Gards even come close to his skill level. That's how skilled I think he was. He is the kinda D that you could put in the shootout no problem as one of your top 3 or 4 shooters.

Forward: It's gotta be Marner at this point for me. He is just amazing out there. He makes everything out there look so smooth. Of course guys like Sundin, Matthews, Mogilny are up there as well.

Click to read more...

 

[Chief keefe]

Started watching sometime between 01 and 03.. I can't really remember. Caught a little bit of Joseph though.

Goalie- Honestly Freddy.. his Positioning and calmness in net is unbelievable to me. He also makes some unbelievable saves that I dont remember any goalie of ours ever being able to make (from my time watching). I might have short term memory though.. or I caught an older Eddie and Joseph

Defence: Captain Morgan.. goal against Edmonton makes my decision very easy.

Offence: its between Matthews and Marner. I really can't make up my mind because they both have such different set of skills but are sooooooo damn skilled. That 4 goal game from Pappy was insane.. Marner can just strip opponents anywhere on the ice and pass the puck like its the OHL... Both are exceptional.

I really think I have short term memory bias though... these last 2 years have been too good and I try to forget the last 15 years lol

 

[Clark4Ever]

Goaltending: Curtis Joseph - Played an unorthodox style that was nerve racking but spectacular.

Defence: Borje Salming - I'm old enough to rembember watching Salming still dominate games later in his career when I was a kid.

Forward: In terms of skill, I would say Alex Mogilny, but Marner is quickly rising to the top of that list.

 

[Leafslet]

goaltending: ed belfour, and it's not even close. potvin, cujo, freddy, none compare to eddie and how sound he was.

center: matthews or gilmour, but i'm leaning towards matthews.

winger: mogilney. guy was incredible.

defense: .... hm. lol. robert svehla?

 

[ninetyone]

Goalie- Ed Belfour

Defense - Salming (by far), Kaberle and McCabe, Rielly
Past prime: Brian Leetch, Poor Larry Murphy
(Pretty sad history on defense)

LW
Dave Andreychuk
Wendel Clark
past prime: Gary Roberts

Centre
Auston Matthews and John Tavares
Mats Sundin
Darryl Sittler
Doug Gilmour (way to short of a Leaf career)

RW
Mitch Marner (he has the skill and potential to be tops on this list - despite Vaive's multiple 50 goal seasons)
Lanny McDonald
Phil Kessel
Rick Vaive
William Nylander
Past prime - Mogilny, GAnderson

 

[Ratboy]

C Rickard Wallin.
LW Ken Baumgartner.
RW Mike Foligno
D Sylvain Lefebvre
G James Reimer

 

[hockeeyyy]

Centre: Sundin, but quickly rising is Matthews
Wing: Marner, bar none.
Defense: Tomas Kaberle or Morgan Rielly
Goalie: Belfour

 

[67Cup]

I’m old enough to remember Dave Keon as a rookie. Keon was named best Leaf of all time in one survey. It should be Syl Apps, IMO, though I never saw him play, but Keon was still superlative as a centre. Nevertheless, I am not going to choose him. I already think the best and most skilled Leaf Centre I have ever seen is Auston Matthews.

From those Leafs teams of the sixties, however, I will choose the most skilled Leaf defense man I have seen.... No, not Tim Horton but Carl Brewer. He quit the NHL at his prime, worn out by constant strife with Punch Imlach, so he didn’t collect as many honours as some others. In his prime he was the most skilled I have seen, however. Salming is close.

Goalie is tough ... What skills do we mean? Positioning? Reflexes? Acrobatics in the net? Well, Cujo, might be the answer.

Most skilled winger is tough. Maybe Frank Mahovlich, maybe Mogilny and maybe by the end of the season, Marner. Tough choice but it’s somebody whose name starts with “M.”

 

[ottomaddox]

Defense

Berard
Svehla

Goalie

Cujo
Belfour

Forwards

Gilmour
Sundin
Thomas
Mogilny
Matthews
Marner

 

[Nineteen67]

Keon, Sittler, Vaive, Gilmour, Sundin, Matthews.

If Rick Vaive had talent around him he’d be in the HoF

 

[pcruz]

Goalie- Ed Belfour

Defense - Salming (by far), Kaberle and McCabe, Rielly
Past prime: Brian Leetch, Poor Larry Murphy
(Pretty sad history on defense)

LW
Dave Andreychuk
Wendel Clark
past prime: Gary Roberts

Centre
Auston Matthews and John Tavares
Mats Sundin
Darryl Sittler
Doug Gilmour (way to short of a Leaf career)

RW
Mitch Marner (he has the skill and potential to be tops on this list - despite Vaive's multiple 50 goal seasons)
Lanny McDonald
Phil Kessel
Rick Vaive
William Nylander
Past prime - Mogilny, GAnderson

I like this list a lot. I'd add in Cujo in net. I thought he was superior to Felix the Cat.
Belfour and Joseph were far and away better than anyone we've had since then as well. Andersen is good, but he can't hold a candle to those guys.

I'd add Tucker on there too. I know he was a rat, but the guy scored 20 goals just about every year and he was far better than others gave him credit, not unlike the current rat of the NHL. Let's say Tucker was a poor man's Marchand minus the highly punchable face.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Forward - Keon and Mogilny.
Defence - Horton and Salming
Goal - Bower and Sawchuk

 

[indigobuffalo]

How people are foisting CuJo onto the best G of all time is interesting.

He was good, sometimes great, but never ever GOAT.

He holds the NHL record for most losses by a goaltender.

 

[DoobieDubas]

Lineup:
3 forwards in my life time: Matthews Sundin Marner or if only allowed one center then matthews marner mogilny/nylander
2 D Reilly Kaberle
Goalies: Cujo/anderson/eagle



Shows how skilled our young guys are that even people who are "older" then me (26) and have seen alot of the older leaf generation still add our current young guys into the group. I like this thread.

 

[1specter]

How people are foisting CuJo onto the best G of all time is interesting.

He was good, sometimes great, but never ever GOAT.

He holds the NHL record for most losses by a goaltender.

Read the thread title properly.

 

[67Cup]

@indigobuffalo The OP said “most skilled” that we personally have watched, not best of all time. Best Leaf goalie of all time is either Turk Broda or Johnny Bower and I did see the latter. I thought about choosing him. But Cujo might be the most skilled net minder of the Leafs I have seen. It’s very hard to say.

To make a comparison to another position, it would be a joke to consider Mogilny the best Leaf forward of all time. But he was indeed marvellously skilled.

 

[Paradoc]

Center:
Auston Matthews
Matt Sundin

Wingers:
Phil Kessel
Mitch Marner
William Nylander

Defense:
Kaberle
Rielly

Goaltender:
Andersen

Yeah, not a good time for me being a Leaf fan up until we entered the Shanahan era. Hope I never have to witness the dark days again...

 

[brandonlowi]

Sundin for me. He never has the talent we have now. But, that dude was consistent every year. Plus his 500th hat trick short handed game winning overtime goal is one of my favorite Lesfs moment.

 

[notDatsyuk]

From those Leafs teams of the sixties, however, I will choose the most skilled Leaf defense man I have seen.... No, not Tim Horton but Carl Brewer. He quit the NHL at his prime, worn out by constant strife with Punch Imlach, so he didn’t collect as many honours as some others. In his prime he was the most skilled I have seen, however. Salming is close.

I played with/against Brewer, between his NHL stints. He was great, and probably the most sneaky-dirty player I've ever seen, but I think Horton had more sheer talent, and I just wish Imlach had let him loose more.

Another great one was Red Kelly - four Cups with Detroit as a defenceman, then four more with Toronto as a forward. The only player prior to (I think) Coffey, with more than four Cups, who didn't play for Montreal.

 

[Pookie]

Goalie: Joseph, Potvin, Belfour

D: Kaberle, Salming, McCabe, Todd Gill, Al Iafrate and Dave Ellett

Forwards: Gilmour, Andreychuck, Clark, Sundin, Roberts, Mogilny, Kessel, Leeman

Best drafted and/or developed: Clark, Kaberle, Kadri, Bozak (clearly Marner and Matthews will be there too)

Team: ‘92-93

Best Line: Zezel-Berg-Osbourne

Captain: Clark

Coach: Burns

GM: Fletcher

Announcer: Bowen

Memorable goal: Borchevsky’s OT 92-93 playoffs game 7 v Detroit

 

[ottomaddox]

How people are foisting CuJo onto the best G of all time is interesting.

He was good, sometimes great, but never ever GOAT.

He holds the NHL record for most losses by a goaltender.

He has a body of work.

Played pretty amazing for St. Louis, Edmonton, and then Toronto.

 

[hector morrison]

Forward - Keon and Mogilny.
Defence - Horton and Salming
Goal - Bower and Sawchuk

Yer old ,aren't ya? I really like yer picks! Can't deny some of the more recent talent though,like Sittler and Macdonald,or Vaives slapshot,Wendells wrister and scrapping is a talent! Eddie in net was so good! And now Marner and Matthews will both be Leaf greats!

 

[deletethis]

Center: Sundin
Right Wing: Mogilny could do it all. Great shot, great passer, great skater, great in the corners for an undersized skill forward.
Left Wing: If Matthews were a LW (which he could be), he'd be the most skilled LW I've seen as a Leaf. Otherwise probably Vincent Damphousse who was a LW for the start of his career.

Defense: Al Iafrate had great skills. But he was reckless, terribly conditioned and made suspect decisions all over the ice. Think Brett Burns minus the hockey smarts but I bet Iafrate was faster, hit harder, shot harder and was a more exciting player.

Tomas Kaberle had ice in his veins. He made eluding forecheckers look effortless. Great passer, great skater, underrated shot.


Goal: Felix Potvin was a new breed goalie with very good skills. He was personally a bit erratic and could lack confidence but could singlehandedly win games early in his career.

 

[authentic]

Number 1 for forwards I think it's a tossup between Sundin, Matthews and Marner. Probably Matthews though. For defensemen it's Kaberle and it's not even close. I also believe Fredrik Andersson is the most skilled goalie too.

 

[authentic]

Oh yeah, Mogilny was extremely skilled, he's debatable too.