Currently, the Toronto Maple Leafs are tied with the St. Louis Blues for the longest streak of not winning the Stanley Cup at 47 years, dating back to 1967. Ownership and management are usually the main reasons cited for this futility, but there are other factors as well. One reason might be due to the fact that the Maple Leafs have seldom had the best player in the NHL.
Maple Leaf players seldom win either the Hart Trophy which is given to the NHL’s most valuable player and have never won the Art Ross Trophy which was first awarded to the league’s scoring champion in 1947.
If fans think the current Stanley Cup winless streak is bad, consider that a Maple Leaf player has not won the Hart Trophy since Ted Kennedy won it in 1955, a full 59 years ago – and that a Maple Leaf player has not won the scoring title since Gordie Drillon did it in 1938 an even more futile stretch of 76 years that predates the introduction of the Art Ross Trophy.
What is worse is that up to 1967, there were mostly only six teams in the NHL. The current number of 30 teams and possibly more means that it will harder to do in the future.
In their history, only five Maple Leafs, Drillon, Charlie Conacher (twice), Babe Dye (twice), Ace Bailey, and Harvey Jackson have won the NHL’s scoring title, and none since World War II was in its early days. This is the lowest of all original six teams.
The Hart Trophy records are even more dismal. Only two (believe it or not) Maple Leafs, Kennedy and Babe Pratt were ever named the NHL’s most valuable player. Of all the Original Six teams the Leafs have the fewest number of Hart Trophy Winners.
Now while the Leafs were able to win 13 Stanley Cups while having the least amount of individual stars of the teams, this was in the original six era. Maybe instead of wondering about the Leafs lack of a Stanley Cup, it is to be wondered why the Leafs have been so unable to acquire a true mega-star in so much of their recent history. That one game breaking centre the franchise could build around.
It should come as no surprise that the best Leaf teams of the last 47 years were built around players who were close, but not quite at, that status of best in the league. Doug Gilmour was one of the best players in the NHL in the early 90s and took the Leafs to Conference Final appearances in 1993 and 1994. Mats Sundin was also an upper echelon centre who took the team to two conference championship appearances, 1999 and 2002.
The Gilmour led team fell to Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings in 1992, and the Mats Sundin led team fell to the Buffalo Sabres and Hart Trophy winning goalie Dominik Hasek in 1999. While not facing a Hart/Art Ross winner, the 1994 team fell to the Vancouver Canucks who had Pavel Bure (a player who would win multiple NHL Goal Scoring Titles in his career), and the 2002 team fell to a Hurricanes club with 4th all-time NHL scorer Ron Francis.
It doesn’t help to remember that the Maple Leafs let Bobby Orr slip from their grasp into the Boston developmental system nor how ownership and management managed to scotch Wayne Gretzky’s dream of ending his career in Toronto.
When we look at the face of other original six franchises we have Bobby Orr in Boston, Maurice Richard in Montreal, Bobby Hull in Chicago, and Gordie Howe in Detroit. The Leafs (and the Rangers as well) just don’t have a player who meets that standard in those years. In more recent years the Rangers would have multi-time Hart and Norris winners in Mark Messier and Brian Leetch on their 1994 Stanley Cup winning team, and break their cup drought.
The Leafs best player of all-time? Some will say Charlie Conacher, others Darryl Sittler, others Ted “Teeder” Kennedy and others King Clancy. But no matter which one of those four you support, are they in the same pantheon of legends like Orr, Howe, Richard and Hull? They really aren’t named in the top 7 or 8 NHLers of all time the way those four consistently are.
For the Maple Leafs, having the most feared player in the NHL on their side is few and far between in their history. Finding a way to get that player to build around (And no it isn’t easy), may be what the Leafs need to end their Stanley Cup drought.
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