Toronto

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 Vaclav Nedomansky Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Vaclav Nedomansky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019. Perhaps you’re wondering why. We know we were.

In this episode, we look at his case for induction and try to come up with an explanation as to why he is in and numerous other WHA and European stars are not.

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Does Tommy Smith Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Tommy Smith is a player we really had never heard of.

Why? Because he played 10 games in the NHL. He scored 1 point.

But Tommy Smith is one of the best players in the history of the NHA.

Additionally, he dominated every amateur and semi-pro and early pro league he was in.

He probably belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Listen to us talk about Tommy Smith:

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.

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Does Mathieu Schneider Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

In journeyman career that saw him play for way too many teams, Mathieu Schneider amassed enough points to make him one of the top 25 offensive defensmen in NHL history (if you go by totals, not per game). That surprised us.

by James Teterenko / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

But Schneider has few individual accolades and not a lot of team success.

So does he belong in the Hall of Fame?

We discuss it on our latest episode. Listen here:

Does Doug Gilmour Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

A friend of ours used to claim that Doug Gilmour didn’t belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame because he had “one good year.” This friend used to compare Gilmour’s stats to Kirk Muller’s, apparently because he didn’t know he could look them up on the internet.

by Newsker93 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Gilmour was only rarely a star offensively but was one of the elite defensive forwards of his era, receiving numerous Selke nominations. In this episode, we discuss whether he should have been inducted and where he ranks among the great players of his era.

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Does Jack Adams Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a Player?

Jack Adams is an obvious Hall of Famer, the only person to win the Stanley Cup as a player, a coach and a GM, and that Jack Adams, he of the NHL’s Coach of the Year award. But was he really a Hall of Fame player?

Listen to us talk about Jack Adams here:

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Does Corb Denneny Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Unlike his brother Cy, Charles “Corb” Corbett Denneny is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame, despite having a pretty decent career.

In this episode, we talk about Corb and how he compares to some of his contemporaries who are in the Hall already. Does he deserve to be inducted now?

Listen here:

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Corb Denneny’s stats: