Top 5 Most Underrated Toronto Maple Leafs of All-Time

#5. Sid Smith

Who?

You’re going to have to be a hockey historian or die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan to remember Sid Smith because the prime of his career took place roughly 70 years ago.

When historic Toronto Maple Leafs names get brought up, Sid Smith’s name is nowhere to be found.

In all honesty, I had no idea who he was before digging deeper into this article. I mean, can you blame me? In deep-diving conversations about the Leafs with buddies, nobody goes, “Man, do you remember Sid Smith’s 1954-55 season? It was incredible!”

But you know what, maybe they should.

In terms of left-wingers of all-time, Smith arguably should have cracked TSN’s All-Time Leafs team a few weeks ago. They had Bob Pulford as the fourth-line left-winger, when Smith’s prime was actually more impressive.

Pulford had a longer more consistent career, but Smith had a stretch in the 1950s that only players like Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, Ted Lindsay and Maurice “Rocket” Richard could match in the goals and points category.

Smith had six straight 20-goal seasons, including two occasions where he scored 30 or more, and below is a five-year run where he finished in the top-10 in either goals, points or both.

• 1950-51
  • 22 Goals (4th in NHL)
  • 45 Points (10th in NHL)
• 1951-52
  • 30 Goals (5th in NHL)
  • 51 Points (5th in NHL)
• 1952-53
  • 20 Goals (10th in NHL)
• 1953-54
  • 22 Goals (7th in NHL)
• 1954-55
  • 33 Goals (4th in NHL)
  • 54 Points (8th in NHL)

I know nobody is going to race off to purchase a Sid Smith jersey now, but in terms of underrated Leafs, Smith is one of them.

#4. Sergei Berezin

If you’re an 80s or 90s kid, maybe Berezin isn’t underrated to you but in Leafs history, I think he definitely is.

First, let’s just admire those jerseys for a second. For me, that jersey symbolizes my childhood. They’re absolutely perfect with the two Leafs on the shoulders, and arm-pit holes across the sides.

Also, let’s talk about Berezin’s weapon of choice, the Easton Ultra-Lite. That stick changed hockey in the late 90s. It’s no Synergy or Z-Bubble, but you could get some serious whip with that stick.

Anyways, that stick is probably a reason why Berezin was so good and is an underrated Maple Leaf.

During Berezin’s tenure with the Maple Leafs from 1996-2001, this was Mats Sundin’s team. He was the captain and typically the leader in points and goals every year.

However, Berezin was also right up there in goals with Sundin, even surpassing him in the 1988-99 season.

Berezin never played a full season with the Maple Leafs, but in a five-year stretch he scored the following:

• 1996-97: 25 goals
• 1997-98: 16 goals
• 1998-99: 37 goals
• 1999-00: 26 goals
• 2000-01: 22 goals

In 357 games, Berezin scored 126 goals, which averages out to 0.35 goals per game. That would put him at a 29-goal rate in a full 82-game season over a five-year span which is very impressive.

Berezin won’t crack the top-100 Leafs list of all-time but his run in the late 90s should be remembered.

#3. Phil Kessel

In the Toronto Maple Leafs top-100 list of all-time, Kessel is ranked 48th.

That’s right in front of Walter “Babe” Pratt who had 83 total NHL goals as a winger. I know it’s really hard to compare era’s but Kessel is 18th in Leafs history for career goals and 20th all-time in career points.

In 446 career games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kessel scored 181 goals and had 394 points, so he averaged 0.41 goals per game, and 0.88 points per game. In comparison to all-time Maple Leafs’, that puts Kessel in elite company.

Those averages are just slightly below Mats Sundin, Wendel Clark and Darryl Sittler, but if Kessel played the same amount of games in the Blue-and-White as those individuals, he’d no doubt of ended his career in the top-five of all Maple Leafs’ career statistics.

In six seasons, Kessel barely missed a game. Although you could knock him at times for his defensive play, he was an offensive threat every time he stepped on the ice.

He had four seasons of 30-plus goals and his worst goal season came when he scored 20 goals in 2012-13, but that was a shortened year where they only played 48 games.

Based off his quirky personality, it felt that fans and the media never respected Kessel as much as they should. You have to remember that Kessel did most of his offensive work by himself as well.

During his time in Toronto, the best center he ever played with was Tyler Bozak, who no offensive to him, is best suited as a third-line player. Sure, Kessel won’t win you a Stanley Cup as the teams best player, but as we saw when he moved to Pittsburgh, he was the perfect secondary scoring option to Sidney Crosby and Evegni Malkin.

In terms of greatest goal-scoring talents in Leafs history, Kessel should be in the conversation every time.

#2. Vincent Damphouse

Some kids dream of being Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman or Wayne Gretzky when they play mini-sticks in their parents basement; I dreamed of being Vincent Damphouse.

Drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs six overall in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft, Damphouse was a big center who could score.

Having shown his offensive upside in the QMJHL with 155 points in his final year of junior hockey, Damphouse was hoping to make an impact in the NHL right away.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Scoring 21 goals in his rookie season, Damphouse finished fourth on the Leafs in goals. He couldn’t quite live up to Wendel Clark’s rookie performance of 37 goals in the previous season but Damphouse started his career off well.

Following a sophomore slump, the next three seasons for Damphouse were great. In-between two seasons of 26 goals, Damphouse’s 1989-90 season was one to remember.

Finishing one point behind Gary Leeman for the team lead, Damphouse had 94 points, which included 33 goals. At only 21-years-old, it felt like the Leafs had found that young scoring duo of Clark and Damphouse that would help get them back to glory.

However, one year after his best season as a professional, the Leafs shipped him to Edmonton for a package which included Grant Fuhr and Glenn Anderson in return.

Anderson had three productive seasons in Toronto, whereas Fuhr was the starter for one year before Felix Potvin took over. Instead of keeping a young Damphouse who would go onto have eight 20-goal seasons, win a Stanley Cup and captain both the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs shipped him away for pennies.

Damphouse may be remembered more for his time with the Canadiens, but his underrated career started in Toronto.

#1. Rick Vaive

Although Vaive has been talked about more this season than any other season, as Matthews attempted to break his single-season goal record, it has always felt that Vaive doesn’t get the credit he deserves like some other Toronto Maple Leafs’ greats.

In terms of Leafs’ royalty, Vaive has more career goals than the following:

• George Armstrong
• Frank Mahovlich
• Wendel Clark
• Lanny McDonald
• Ted Kennedy
• Syl Apps

Vaive’s seven-year run in Toronto is not talked about enough. He never scored less than 32 goals in a season and had a three-year run of 50-plus goals from 1981-1984.

There have only been five seasons in Leafs’ history in which a player has scored 50 or more goals and Vaive holds three of those. For a team that’s been around since 1917, that’s incredibly special.

Although the team’s that Vaive played on during his tenure never had a winning season, Vaive couldn’t be blamed for that.

Harold Ballard should take most of the blame, as he dissembled a great Leafs’ team at the end of the 1970s that included trading away Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald.

As the best player on the Leafs’ roster for most of his tenure, before Wendel Clark arrived, Vaive could only do so much himself. The goaltending throughout his time in Toronto was awful and even he scored a few goals a night, the team always seemed to allow more than they scored.

If Vaive played in the 1970s or 1990s, I think he could have been one of the most popular Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time, but instead he’s looked at as one of the few bright spots during a terrible decade.

As a result, Vaive’s definitely underrated as it’s taken almost 40 years for any player to come close to his goal scoring records.