6. Casper (John Tavares)
An effective ad that plays on the seriousness of the Leafs’ current captain. In it, he literally moves into the arena, to the ire of a Zamboni driver named Dave… wait, that sounds familiar.
Ayres jokes aside, most of the sponsorship appearances Tavares has appeared in since his arrival play on his outward seriousness, single-minded focus on the game, or the infamous pajama photo from when he was a kid.
I do want to give an honorable mention to the one commercial that doesn’t utilize any of the Tavares tropes. Anyone who’s watched Hockey Night In Canada has seen it a million and one times by now, and though we might sick of seeing it over and over, you can’t deny that it’s well-made.
5. McDonald’s (Mats Sundin)
We go from the current Toronto Maple Leafs captain to the last great captain, Mats Sundin co-starring in an ad for McDonald’s with The Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky.
I remember seeing this a few times when I was a kid, and it’s just as fun now as I remember, a couple of the greatest players of all time challenging each other to increasingly ridiculous shots.
Somebody should get on remaking this with modern greats like Crosby, McDavid, Mackinnon and Matthews, that’d be amazing.
4. Bauer (Auston Matthews)
I guess in a way, this is a modernized version of the Sundin McDonald’s ad, although this time it’s a commercial for a Bauer stick co-starring Auston Matthews and Jonathan Toews, who completely wreck the “set” of a commercial shoot with trick shot challenges.
I give this the slight leg up on the Sundin one because, although it’s much more grounded in reality, it has an unscripted feel of just some guys having fun and I really admire that approach. Anything that makes the players look less like the soulless robots the mainstream media would have you believe they are.