Editor In Leaf
Fansided

Top 10 Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltenders of All-Time

By Mike Jack

TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 05: Statues of former Toronto Maple Leafs goalies Johnny Bower and Turk Broda enshrined in Legends Row outside the Air Canada Centre before the Toronto Raptors game against the Utah Jazz during NBA game action at Air Canada Centre on January 5, 2017 in Toronto, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 05: Statues of former Toronto Maple Leafs goalies Johnny Bower and Turk Broda enshrined in Legends Row outside the Air Canada Centre before the Toronto Raptors game against the Utah Jazz during NBA game action at Air Canada Centre on January 5, 2017 in Toronto, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 11
Next
Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ON – MAY 27: Jack Campbell #36 of the Toronto Maple Leafs   (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

Over the course of their deep history spanning over 100 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had many legends in net.

Obviously there are a lot of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltenders I haven’t watched over the course of their history, so this is more of a statistical analysis than an opinion piece.

While compiling this list, the things I considered the most were honours presented to the players by the  Leafs, awards received by the players from the NHL while playing for the  Leafs, and where the players ranked in NHL stats each season.

When it comes to stats, I’m looking mostly at save percentage in individual seasons and then goals against average.  I feel wins and loses are more of a team based stat than a goaltending stat.  Overall career stats can vary greatly depending on the era each player played, so I’m comparing goalies with players from their era instead of against players from different eras.

I’m also strictly looking at seasons that the players played on the Leafs.   It doesn’t matter what they did before or after they were with the Leafs.  I’m also only looking at stats where the goaltender played at least 31.25% of the games in the season since I’m using stats from hockey-reference.com and that’s how they do it.

Here are a few things to note when looking at these goalies:

The Vezina trophy was first awarded in 1927 and was originally given to the goaltender who played the most games for the team with the lowest amount of goals against.  In 1982, the rules changed and the Vezina was awarded to the NHL’s most outstanding goalie via vote and the William M Jennings trophy was adopted to be given for fewest goals against.

Since the Jennings isn’t really considered a major award today, I’m not putting too much weight into Vezina wins before 1982.  Hart trophy voting has been around since 1924 and 1st All-Star Team and 2nd All-Star Team voting has been taking place since 1931, and I feel a vote holds more weight than goals against since goals against depends a lot on team defense rather than just the goalie.

Shots weren’t counted in the NHL until 1955-56 season, so save percentage wasn’t a recorded stat until then.

Let’s start with some honourable mentions:

Home/All-Time Lists