Maple Leafs

Does Grant Fuhr Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Does Grant Fuhr belong in the Hall of Fame?

Sure, he has Cups and a Vezina. And he has the record for most goalie games played in a single season.

But he also has extremely mediocre stats compared to his contemporaries, most of whom are not in the Hall of Fame like he is.

Then, there’s this other thing: he’s arguably the first ever African Canadian (or African American) hockey star in history. A true trail-blazer.

So does he belong?

Listen to us debate his case here:

Does Larry Murphy Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Larry Murphy played forever and won a bunch of Cups. But he never won a Norris and never made a 1st All Starm Team.

Does Larry Murphy Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Listen to us discuss his case here:

Why is Dick Duff in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Never a top offensive player in the league, Dick Duff was inducted into the Hall of Fame 34 years after retired.

In the latest episode of our podcast, we ask why Dick Duff was inducted at all, why he was inducted when he was, and whether or not his induction sets a dangerous precedent for the Hall of Fame.

Listen here:

Does Ed Belfour Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Ed Belfour was one of the better goalies of the era, but does that mean he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Listen to us discuss Belfour’s case here:

Does Bert Corbeau Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Bert Corbeau was, by some metrics, one of the best D of his era. In this episode, we discuss whether or not he should be inducted.

Listen here:

Is Ron Francis One of the Great Centres in NHL History?

Ron Francis undoubtedly belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Skaters who played as long as he did and were as consistently good as he was always get in.

by akulawolf / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

But the real question is, how good was he? He was never really a top offensive star and his best years came as the second line centre on a team with two of the best forwards in history (and one of the two candidates for best centre ever).

Listen to us debate Francis’ career here:

Why is Glenn Anderson in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Glenn Anderson was the 5th best player on a dynastic hockey team. He then lucked out and got traded to a team which won him a sixth Stanley Cup. He was never the star of any of those 6 teams and he was only ever briefly a top offensive player in the NHL (when he was playing with 4 Hall of Fame skaters).

Yet he’s been in the Hall of Fame for a while.

In our latest episode, we talk about Anderson’s case, and how it centres on two things: his 6 Cups and his ridiculous playoff totals.

Listen here:

31 Worst Toronto Maple Leafs Trades Ever

For our list of the Top 25 Best Trades in Toronto Maple Leafs History, we used Hockey Reference’s Point Shares, an attempt to value a player’s contribution to team points won. (You can read about it at in the Top 25 list.)

The cut off for that list 22 net Point Shares, though we included some honourable mentions at just over 20 net Point Shares.

Because, by net Point Shares, there have been a few more bad trades in Leafs history than good ones, this list is longer.

All Point Share data as of March 11, 2020

The 25 Best Trades in Toronto Maple Leafs History

This list is an attempt at a semi-objective ranking of best trades made by the Toronto Maple Leafs. It makes use of Hockey Reference’s Point Shares metric to rank the trades.

A Point Share is a player’s share of the points his team earns in the regular season. (There are numerous problems with Point Shares, some of which we have listed at the end of this list.)

In order to rank the trades we took the total Point Shares players acquired by the Leafs accumulated for the Leafs and then subtracted the Point Shares the players sent out from the Leafs accumulated for the other team in the trade. We included all trades since the franchise came into existence but please let us know if we missed any.

We did this calculation for only the franchises involved in the trade so Point Shares accumulated for other franchises later on in the career, or if a player returned to the team later, do not count. (Again, the problems with this approach are discussed at the end.)

By our estimation the Leafs have given up way more in regular season Point Shares than they’ve ever received in return. (Though they’ve made a lot of money!) We estimate that, through trades and the waiver wire, the Leafs have given up over 820 Point Shares more than they’ve received. Gretzky is the career leader in Point Shares at 251. So, basically, the Leafs have given up over 3 Gretzkys in terms of regular season wins over the course of the last 100 years.

So the list of best 25 trades is a bit of stretch. It was a lot easier to find the bad ones.

Here they are: the 25 best trades in Leafs history ranked by Point Shares.

All Point Share data as of December 30, 2019

Does Brian Leetch Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Brian Leetch was one of the greatest offensive defensemen of his era, perhaps even of all time.

That’s what we discuss on his episode of our podcast – where Leetch ranks all time, with multiple long discussions of his role in the 1994 Rangers’ Cup run.

Listen here: