Toronto Maple Leafs PIM List: Could Zach Hyman Catch Tie Domi?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to ice one of the best teams they’ve ever had in the history of their franchise this year.

Of course, that assumes that there is a hockey season at all this year.  When last we checked, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the rest of the NHL were in some kind of dispute regarding Covid related paycuts, and trying to figure out a way to safely resume play during a pandemic.

To help pass the time during this non-hockey hockey season, we’ve taken to checking in on the all-time status of various Leafs statistics. We covered points and goals so far, where we learned that while Mats Sundin remains the king, Auston Matthews should challenge him for both titles, eventually.

Today we will look into penalty minutes, a statistic  that makes absolutely no sense.  Why do we track penalty minutes as if they are a positive, and not a negative thing? Who knows?  It’s one of the most contrary things I can think of, and perhaps the following should be presented in a negative way instead of a positive one.  I’ll leave that up to you.

Toronto Maple Leafs Penalty Minute Leaders

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Leafs player with the most penalty minutes is Tie Domi.  The former enforcer amassed 2265 penalty minutes while beating up many players and the occasional Flyers fan.

Domi is a player who is beloved out of all context of what his accomplishments warrant, but what can you do? The guy is possibly more loved than Mats Sundin, the undisputed, never argued, better-than-Dave-Keon, objectively best player in the Toronto Maple Leafs history.

Personally, I am a huge Sundin fan and I don’t understand the love for Domi (or Clark, or Keon, or Gilmour) over him, but you never can tell who will and will not capture the public’s imagination.  Second on this dubious list is Tiger Williams, followed by Wendel Clark. (All stats for this article from Quanthockey.com). 

Since there is essentially no longer any fighting in the NHL, there is little chance any current players will put their mark on this list.  Nazem Kadri is 61st all-time.  Up to the time he was traded, he was probably my second favorite Leafs player of all time (after Sundin) and if there was more fighting when he was here he probably would be quite a lot higher.  Impressive (or not impressive?) performance all things considered.

After Kadri you have to go all the way to 150 to find a player actually on the Toronto Maple Leafs today. That player is Zach Hyman with 173 PIMS.

Hyman needs only to take 1046 more minor penalties in his career to catch Tie Domi.  At his current pace, Hyman will need to play just under 4000 more NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs to pull it off.  For perspective, that’s just about 2300 more games than Gordie Howe, the NHL’s all time games played leader, has played.

For what it’s worth, Domi is third all time in penalty minutes.