Fun Facts About Every Toronto Maple Leafs Player

If you call yourself a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you may think you know everything about your favourite team, but do you?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a tightly run organization, so public knowledge of players is hard to come by.

In the previous regime under Lou Lamoriello, a player couldn’t even have facial hair, let alone show their true personality off the ice.

Lamoriello essentially ran the organization the same way Mr. Burns from The Simpsons managed the Springfield Nuclear Plant Soft Ball team, when he yelled at Don Mattingly to trim his sideburns.

“Mattingly, I thought I told you to trim those sideburns. Go home, you’re off the team for good!”

Running an organization with a ton of rules isn’t a bad thing as it builds discipline and structure, but it’s not fun for the fans.

You’d much rather learn about your favourite players and see them have fun off the ice instead of only providing simple hockey answers to the public.

Kyle Dubas has been much better by allowing his players to grow facial hair and be themselves. You think Lamoriello would have allowed a GQ Cover shot with Auston Matthews or a Twitch account by Mitch Marner?

Doubtful.

Now that players are allowed to show their true colors, you’re able to see them more as humans, instead of just hockey players.

Although we’ve been able to see more from each player, there are still a number of facts you probably don’t know about every player on the team.

Here are is one fun fact about every Toronto Maple Leafs player.

Forwards:

• Auston Matthews
  • Holds the record for most points by a player under 20 years old in Switzlerland’s National League A, where he scored 46 points in 36 games.
• Mitch Marner
  • He’s a huge Bon Jovi fan.
• John Tavares
  • His uncle (same name) is arguably the greatest lacrosse player of all-time.
• William Nylander
  • Brooks Laich assisted on not only Nylander’s first NHL goal but his dad Michael’s last career NHL goal.
• Alex Kerfoot
  • His favourite movie is Wedding Crashers.
• Kasperi Kapanen 
  • Played on the same line as his dad Sami in Finland on KalPa Kuopio of the SM-liiga.
• Andreas Johnnson
  • His nickname is “Mango.”
• Zach Hyman
  • He’s an incredibly successful children’s author.
• Kyle Clifford
  • His agent used to be current Leafs G.M. Kyle Dubas
• Pierre Engvall
  • Is only the fifth person from his hometown of Ljungby, Sweden to play in the NHL.
• Jason Spezza
  •  He was on posters as a toddler, and did a Minute Maid commercial at 4 years old, and was a model for Woolco and K-Mart at 6 years old.
• Ilya Mikheyev
  • He is the Chief Soup Officer for Campbell Canada.
• Frederik Gauthier
  • According to former player Garret Sparks, he loves Chipotle, puzzles and RollerCoaster Tycoon.
• Denis Malgin
  • His brother is also a professional hockey player, who most recently was a goaltender in the KHL.

Defense

• Morgan Rielly
  • Has fake tooth to replace the one he lost during a game against Sweden in the World Cup of Hockey.
• Cody Ceci
  • He was born and raised in Ottawa, played is junior hockey with the Ottawa 67s and was drafted by the Ottawa Senators.
• Jake Muzzin
  • Had a serious back injury at 16 years old, and went unsigned by Pittsburgh Penguins after being drafted in 2007, then went undrafted again in 2009.
• Tyson Barrie
  • One of his best friends in hockey is Luke Schenn. They played together in junior with the Kelowna Rockets.
• Rasmus Sandin
  • His brother Linus was the leading goal scorer for HV71 Jonkoping and was third overall in goal scoring in the Swedish Hockey League this year.
• Travis Dermott
  • He was a die-hard Leafs fan growing up in Newmarket, Ontario.
• Calle Rosen
  • Went undrafted and played three seasons in the Swedish Hockey League before signing with the Maple Leafs in 2017.
• Martin Marincin
  • Has never scored more than one goal in an NHL season.
• Justin Holl
  • He’s the only Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman to ever score a goal in his first two NHL games.

Goaltenders

• Frederik Andersen
  • He’s extremely committed to his diet and yoga. It was mentioned a Toronto Star article that Andersen “‘mostly’ sticks to a diet that includes foods meant to keep inflammation at bay, including staples such as beets, green vegetables and grass-fed beef.”

• Jack Campbell
  • When Campbell arrived in Toronto, it was the second time that Kyle Dubas had traded for him. The first time occurred when Dubas traded for Campbell as the G.M. of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Hope you enjoyed all these fun facts!