I'm so sick of Goodbyes

The man with the bad hair on the left is Darryl Sittler. He was a first round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1970 and was named captain in 1975 (after the Leafs asked Dave Keon to give up the C. You stay classy Toronto.)

Sittler was the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for five years. During that time he would play for Team Canada, make numerous all-star teams, set a record for most points in a single game (10), tie the record for most goals in a playoff match (5), and come third in the NHL scoring race with 117 points - finishing behind Guy Lafleur and Brian Trottier. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989.

After a series of odd moves by Harold Ballard and Punch Imlach (including suing the NHLPA over Sittler's involvement in promotions and trading away Sittler's best-pal and line mate Lanny MacDonald) Sittler stripped the "C" from his jersey.

Re-appointed Leaf captain in 1980-81, the conflict between the players and management did not abate and the team finally asked Sittler to waive his no trade clause. Sittler agreed, but the trade talks were so protracted and ugly that Sittler was advised to take a leave of absence from the Leafs mid-season. The final trade still took two more weeks to be completed.

An all-star, first round pick, captain and good guy dealt for spare parts.

The guy on the far right (next to a young Steven Perry?) is Rick Vaive.

A former first round pick of the Vancouver Canucks, he was acquired by the Leafs in a trade that sent Bill Derlago (the Steve Perry look-alike) to the Leafs for Jerry Butler and Dave "Tiger" Williams.

Vaive was the captain of the Leafs from 1981 to 1985.

In 1982 he became the first Leaf to break the 50 goal mark. I may have been 10 at the time, but I distinctly recall that approximately 42 of his 54 goals were scored on booming slap shots from the top of the circle as he cruised down the right side of the ice.

Vaive led the Leafs in scoring (1982, 83 and 85), goals scored (1982-1985) and penalty minutes in 1981. He is the all-time highest scoring right wing in Leafs history.

In 1985 Harold Ballard thought it would be a good idea to strip Vaive of his captaincy when he was late for practice one day (you stay classy Toronto).

The Leafs dealt Vaive and Steve "Stumpy" Thomas to Chicago before the start of the 1987 season for Bob McGill, Al Secord and Ed Olczyk.


As the bottom of the card says, the man on the left in Leaf blues is Rob Ramage.

A first round pick of the Colorado Rockies, Ramage came to Toronto in 1989 via the Calgary Flames for a second round pick (interesting note: the Flames used that second round pick to select Kent Manderville, who would later be re-acquired by the Leafs as part of the Doug Gilmour mega-deal).

Ramage would play D for the Leafs for just two season before the Leafs left him unprotected in the 1991 expansion draft (you stay classy Toronto) where Ramage was claimed by Minnesota.

The man laying a beating on Bob Probert over there on your right doesn't need much of an introduction or a write-up.

Wendel Clark was a first round pick of the Leafs and one of the few bright spots for the organization in the 80s.

He wasn't a very good skater and was hurt more often than he was healthy (he averaged just 51 games a season for the Leafs) but he could fight, hit and score like no other Leaf before or since.

He had a laser for a wrist shot and anvils for fists.

Clark would captain the Leafs from 1991 to 1994, but in a stunning move, Cliff Fletcher traded Clark to the Nordiques, along with Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson and Toronto's 1st round choice for Mats Sundin, Garth Butcher, Todd Warriner and Philadelphia's 1st round choice.

Wendel would have three go-rounds with the Leafs.

He was re-acquired along with Mathieu Schneider and D.J. Smith for Darby Hendrickson, Sean Haggerty, Kenny Jonsson and Toronto's 1st round pick, only to walk away from the Leafs as a free agent just two years later, signing with Tampa Bay.

After being released by Chicago, Clark would quietly finish out his career playing in twenty games for the Leafs in 2000 and then six playoff matches where he managed to show a few sparks of his former self.

This is Doug Gilmour, arguably one of the most popular all-time Leafs.

He was acquired by Cliff Fletcher in what might be the all-time greatest trade in Leaf history.

A contractual hold-out in Calgary, Gilmour arrived in Toronto and instantly made this team a contender. He put up 49 points in his first 40 games with the Leafs and followed that up with 127 point season - the most points ever scored by a Leaf. He finished fourth in NHL scoring the following season with 111 points.

It was in the playoffs that Gimour established his legend. His wrap-around goal in double OT against Curtis Joseph and the Blues may be one of the most iconic goals scored in modern Leaf history. While the Leafs didn't make the finals that year, Gilmour would finish second in playoff scoring with 35 points.

By 1996, Leafs ownership was in turmoil and contracts were being dumped. Mike Murphy was clearly out of his element behind the Leafs bench as he took the team from perrennial playoff contender to last place (a .377 record in the first half of the season. The team would finish an ugly 30-44-8).

It was clear that Gilmour's time with the Leafs was over.

This was an awkward time for Gilmour and the Leafs. He ripped the club and his teammates after a bad loss to Vancouver that January. His play was inconsistent (the media took to calling him a "spectator"). Leaf officials called him out publicly - stating he didn't work as hard as the fans thought he did. He demanded a trade, denied demanding a trade. There were allegations that Dougie was using trade talk to fish for more money from the Leafs. And then, as the trade deadline approached, he publicly asked for a contract extension (despite having his worst year as a Leaf and an owner who was dumping salary) so he could retire a Leaf.

On February 26, he was dealt to New Jersey, along with Dave Ellet for Alyn McCauley, Steve Sullivan and Jason Smith.


Mats Sundin was named captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs on opening night 1997. He was the second longest serving captain in the NHL behind only Joe "snowblower" Sakic.

He is the Leafs all-time goal scoring leader, all-time points leader and is second on the Leafs in all-time assists.

He has the Leafs longest home-game point streak and he led the club in scoring in all but one season that he wore the Blue and White.

Eight All-Star game appearances, named to the second-team all-star team twice, the first player to score 500 goals as a Leaf. He was the captain of the Swedish Olympic gold medal winning team.

He is ranked 22nd all time in career goals (555); 34th all time in career assists (766); 30th all time in career points (1321) in the NHL.

Sundin holds the record as the longest serving European captain of an NHL franchise, he is the first Swedish player to score 500 goals and among Swedish players, Mats has the most points, goals and assists in the NHL.

Many would argue he was the greatest Leaf ever.

* * *

Something to think about on this snowy afternoon: not since George Armstrong in 1970 has a Leaf captain retired with the club.

**Addendum: Down Goes Brown brought up an interesting point in the comments about captains retiring with their team. I just happened to have this list handy as I had prepped it about a year ago for a blog post that never was. I looked at every NHL team over the past 20+ years to see how many teams had their captain retire. It's a short-list:

• Stevens in New Jersey
• Yzerman in Detroit
• Al McInnis in St. Louis
• Steve Smith in Calgary
• Paul Laus in Florida
• Messier (in his second tour) with the Rangers
• Mellanby in Atlanta.

That's it.

Every where else is a long list of buy outs, trades, and free agency. Note, I didn't include injuries in the list like Primeau in Philly and Lemieux (the first time round) in Pittsburgh

From Spineless to Incompent: A History of Leafs' GMs, Part II

A History of Leafs' GMs, Part II

1989 - 1991 Floyd Smith

Floyd Smith (AKA Sleepy Floyd, Count Floyd, Trader Smith) gets his own blog entry, not so much for what he did as a GM (make a million trades and see his team hit rock bottom) but because of all the turmoil that surrounded the Leafs during his tenure.

The similarities between JFJ’s run and Floyd Smith’s are amazing – from conflict at the Board Level to an initial effort to go with youth that resulted in whole sale trades of draft picks and prospects; from a promising start to a search for a new executive to come in as a new President and GM of the Leafs to clean up the horrible mess.

Winning %: .428

Playoff Appearances: 1 for 2

Drafted: Felix Potvin, Yanic Perreault, Alexander Goodynyuk

Best Trade: Peter Zezel and Bob Rouse acquired for Al Iafrate

Worst Trade: Tom Kurvers acquired for a first round pick (Scott Niedermayer).

The Back Story

When Gord Stellick resigned in August of 1989, Harold Ballard offered the Leafs’ GM job to Frank Bonello, who was the GM of the Marlies Club that won the 1975 Memorial Cup. Ballard low-balled the salary offer to Bonello and the deal fell through. The very next morning, Ballard announced that former Leaf coach Floyd Smith was the Leafs' new GM.

Floyd Smith's team actually managed to put up a respectable record in his first year, going 38-38-4 (the Leafs first .500 season in more than a decade - since 1978-79). Toronto qualified for the post season, but were eliminated by the St. Louis Blues in five games (in the land before Internet, I remember lying on the floor of a dorm room in Ottawa doing everything I possibly could to try to maintain a static riddled, weak AM radio signal of that final Leafs' game. I can still hear the cry of "Momesso" when his slap shot from out near the redline eliminated put my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs down 3-0 in the series).

One of the most infamous bad trades in the history of the Leaf franchise went down on Smith's watch: a first round pick to New Jersey for Tom Kurvers. The deal was pulled off by Smith in the fall of 1989 when the Leafs were a mid-pack club. Neither the media, the fans or the club saw what was coming: in his second season as GM, the wheels completely fell off.

The 1990-91 season pretty much couldn’t have gone worse for the Leafs who flirted with last overall pretty much from day one. The team lost 13 of their first 16 games and Smith was ordered to revamp the roster. He would go on to make eight trades over the next nine weeks and while a few of the trades brought some pretty important talent to the club, the Leafs’ never recovered. I can remember seeing New Jersey Devil jerserys with Lindros’ 88 on the back.

The death of Harold Ballard led to a huge legal battle over the future of the franchise. Donald Giffin and Steve Stavro, the co-executors of Ballard’s estate, ended up in a protracted legal battle over the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.

Giffin wanted to keep Smith on as GM and bring in one of John Ferguson Sr., Mike Nykoluk, or former Leafs GM Jim Gregory to run the hockey organization. Stavro was desperate to depose Floyd Smith and bring in a business person to oversee the Leafs; his first choice was Lyman MacInnis, who was the then-head of the Entertainment division of Labatt’s.

Ultimately, Steve Stavro won the court case, the decision allowed him to replace Giffin with a Chief Operating Officer who would turn out to be Cliff Fletcher.

The Good

The Leafs first .500 season in a decade made it seem like this team was finally on the right track.
Harold Ballard died.

A few key future Leafs acquired: Zezel, Rouse, Potvin...

The Bad

Better pull up a chair…

The Leafs started the 1989 season with three wins in their first 16 games and then started the 1990 calendar year by going winless in 10 (0-7-3).

The Leafs had actually collected a number of early draft picks most of whom were shipped out of town when Smith pulled off eight trades in November and December of 1990. In addition to the prospects, in a desperate attempt to right the ship, Smith also traded three of the four first round draft picks.

The Leafs goaltending tandem was Raycroftian. Alan Bester, who never returned to form after giving up the famous Sergio Momesso playoff goal, would find himself spending a portion of the year in the minors with the Newmarket Saints, while Peter Ing was clearly in over his head.

The Crazy

On the one-month anniversary of Smith's hiring, the ever classy Ballard told the media that he’d gladly hire a different GM if someone better came along.

With defenceman Todd Gill struggling, Brad Marsh returns to action after being a healthy scratch for two months, only to have coach Tom Watt decide the Leafs will go with a five-man defensive rotation.

With all of Smith’s wheeling and dealing, the 1990-91 Toronto Maple Leafs dressed a team record 48 players that season.

Prior to being traded, Al Iafrate went through a very messy, public divorce, a paternity suit in St. Louis and his teammate Gary Leeman began publicly dating Iafrate's ex-wife.

Smith would finally trade Tom Kurvers to Vancouver for Brian Bradley. Bradley was goaless in his first season with the Leafs, putting up 11 assists in 26 games as a Leaf. The following season, Bradley continued to struggle scoring goals, potting just 10 in 59 games. Eventually, Bradley would be traded to Tampa Bay where he threatened to break the fifty goal mark in his first year with the club and would eventually score 42 in his first go ‘round with the Lightning.

Floyd Smith thought so much of defenceman Brad Marsh (who couldn’t crack the Leafs line-up and was not protected when the Senators expansion draft occurred) that Smith planned to offer the Leafs coaching position to him.

Smith puts Cliff Fletcher’s name forward to the Board of Directors, he told the Toronto Star: "Sure I knew it would probably cost me my job, but I recommended very strongly that they hire Cliff Fletcher to run the show.”

On the patented DGB How bad was it? 100 point scale: 93 – Just like JFJ’s tenure, Floyd Smith’s Leafs qualified for the post-season in Smith’s first year and seemed to have things going their way. Board interference and an inability to stick to plan made Smith’s second year one of the most tumultuous in Leafs history. Picks and prospects were shipped out of town by the truckload; the dressing room saw some unparalleled conflicts and the starting goalie lost all confidence and ability. And once again, Cliff Fletcher was brought to town to help clean up the mess…

From Spineless to Incompent: A History of Leafs' GMs

Following a spirited debate at PPP that attempted to quantify the incompetence of former Leafs' GM John Ferguson Junior, the question came up as to who is the worst Leafs GM in the past 35 years.

In an homage to Down Goes Brown, I thought I’d take a quick look at all of the GMs that have managed my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs over the last 40 years to see just where JFJ's tenure ranks.

The candidates:
1969 – 1979 Jim Gregory
1979 – 1981 Punch Imlach
1981 – 1988 Gerry McNamara
1988 – 1989 Gord Stellick
1989 – 1991 Floyd Smith
1991 – 1997 Cliff Fletcher
1997 – 1999 Ken Dryden
1999 – 2003 Pat Quinn
2003 – 2008 JFJ

Part I: 1969 to 1989

1969 – 1979 Jim Gregory

Winning %: .506

Playoff Appearances: 8 for 10

Drafted: Darryl Sittler, Lanny MacDonald, Mike Palmateer, Ian Turnbull, Dave Tiger Williams, Doug Jarvis, Randy Carlyle, John Anderson, Joel Quenville

Best Trade: Acquired Bernie Parent and Rick Kehoe for Bruce Gamble, Mike Walton and a 1st round pick

Worst Trade: Doug Jarvis for Greg Hubick

The Back Story
Replaced Leaf GM Punch Imlach for the 1969-70 season (I wasn’t born yet). The 1976 season is the first Leaf club I can remember cheering for.

The Good
Gregory was one of the first GMs to recognize European talent, landing the Leafs Borje Salming and Inge Hammarstrom.

Drafted iconic Leafs MacDonald, Sittler, Palmateer and brought Roger Neilson into the NHL with his first head coaching gig.

The team knocked off the Islanders in 1977 and in 1978 made it to the Stanley Cup Finals (yeah, they were swept by the Habs but the team was on the right track).

The Bad
In a word: Ballard.

In 1971, Harold Ballard became majority owner of the Leafs, Maple Leaf Gardens and appointed himself President and Chairman of the Leafs’ Board.

Under Ballard’s direction the Leafs lost Bernie Parent to the WHA and let Dave Keon’s contract expire in 1975 (Ballard then blocked Keon’s attempted return to the NHL from the WHA in 1980 as the Leafs still owned his NHL rights).

Allegedly, it was Ballard who made the deal with Sam Pollock that sent future hall of famer Doug Jarvis to the Habs for 72 games of Greg Hubick.

The Crazy
In 1972, Ballard was sentenced to nine years in prison for 47 counts of fraud. Ultimately, he finished serving his sentence in 1973. Allegedly, it was during one of his stays in a correctional facility that the Leafs were able to sign Salming and Hammarstrom as Ballard was notorious for his opposition to European players.

Ballard forced Gregory to fire coach Roger Neilson and, when the players lobbied for Neilson’s re-instatement Ballard relented, but he asked Neilson to return wearing a bag over his head to start the game. Neilson, smartly, declined to wear the bag.

On the patented DGB How bad was it? 100 point scale: 80 – the Leafs fielded pretty competitive teams throughout the decade and amassed a fair amount of talent. By the end of the 1970s they were actively competing against the dynasties in Montreal and on Long Island. Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough and Ballard brought back Punch Imlach.

1979 - 1981 Punch Imlach

Winning %: .456

Playoff Appearances: 2 for 2

Notable draft picks: Craig Muni, Bob McGill, Jim Benning

Best Trade: Acquired Rick Vaive and Bill Derlago for Tiger Williams and Jerry Butler

Worst Trade: Dealt Lanny MacDonald for Wilf Paiment and Pat Hickey

The Back Story
As per an earlier post on the 1979-1980 Leafs, Punch Imlach was brought in by Harold Ballard to help get the Leafs over a, ahem, small hump known as the Montreal Canadiens.

The ‘79 Leafs were a promising club led by all-stars Darryl Sittler, Lanny MacDonald and Borje Salming, with a pretty solid supporting cast of Mike Palmateer, John Anderson, Dan Maloney, Ron Ellis and Joel Quenville.

The Good
The Leafs acquired future captain and 50 goal man Rick Vaive...and that’s pretty much it.

The Bad
Imlach promptly put his ugly stamp on the club by trading Lanny MacDonald - fan favourite, 48 goal man and best pal of captain Darryl Sittler - along with Joel Quenville to Colorado for future Leon’s furniture pitch-man Wilf Paiement and Pat Hickey (who in my child hood memories could only score on the backhand. 38 goals in 120 games isn' tbad, but he struck me as terrible).

The Crazy
Imlach’s tenure was a rocky one, marked by serious conflict with the players and what seemed to be a weekly heart attack.

He sued the NHLPA in an effort to keep Sittler, Palmateer and others out of my favourite boy-hood program: Showdown (Palmateer makes Jeff O'Neill look like a paragon of fitness in that clip).

Late in the 1979-80 season, Leafs coach Floyd Smith was injured in a car accident, and after Dick Duff stepped behind the bench for two bad losses, Imlach appointed himself Head Coach. Imlach went 5-5-0 before being swept by the Minnesota North Stars in the first round of the playoffs.

Imlach was never actually fired. After yet another heart attack (his third or fourth), he returned to work in November of 1981 only to find Gerry MacNamara had his job. In the end, Ballard just let Imlach’s contract expire.

On the patented DGB How bad was it? 100 point scale: 92. This was the beginning of a long downward slide, made all the more painful because of the actual promise the Leafs had showed. Just two years removed from their first appearance in the semi-finals in a decade and one year off a solid series against the Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs broke up a solid core of players and the team would not hit .500 again for a decade.


Harold Ballard, interim GM, August to December 1980
Little known leaf fact: In August of 1980, after Imlach suffered one of his 624 heart attacks, Ballard appointed himself interim GM of the Leafs. During this time, he took Darryl Sittler off the trade market, agreed that Sittler would return as the Leafs captain for the 1980-81 season and signed Borje Salming to a contract extension. Likely the two best things that rat bastard ever did for the Leafs.


1981 – 1988 Gerry McNamara

Winning %: .367 (that’s not a typo)

Playoff Appearances: 4 for 7 (that’s not a typo either)

Notable draft picks: Wendel Clark, Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, Al Iafrate, Todd the ever dangerous Gill, Vince Damphousse, Luke Richardson

Best Trade: um, Greg Terrion for a 4th round pick? Tom Fergus for Bill Derlago? Not much to choose from here...

Worst Trade: Sittler for Rich Costello, 2nd round pick and Ken Strong or 1st round pick (Scott Niedermayer) for Tom Kurvers.

The Back Story
Not much to tell. A former hockey player and career Leaf employee, McNamara had some success as a scout and had been an assistant GM to Imlach. As GM, he somehow lasted through seven disastrous seasons.

The Good
With the Leafs unable to compete on the ice, the team amassed a number of solid draft picks, including Wendel Clark.

They somehow managed to sweep the Hawks in ’86 and also made the second round of the playoffs in 1987.

Um, did I mention Wendel Clark?

The Bad
This could be a never ending post.

This is the era of the pedophilia ring at Maple Leaf Gardens.

The Leafs didn’t have a single winning season under McNamara.

Not once did they have a season where they scored more goals than they allowed.

In 1985, the Leafs won just twenty games and finished 32 games under .500

In a panic move, after keeping the Leafs’ first round draft picks for his entire tenure, McNamara deals the team’s first pick to New Jersey for Tom Kurvers. New Jersey went on to select Scott Neidermayer.

Before being fired, McNamara’s Leafs went on a 1-15-6 run, posting a single victory over 22 games.

The Crazy
The Sittler trade talks were so protracted, Sittler walked out on the Leafs under the advice of his physician and the deal still took two more weeks to go down.

McNamara kept his job for nearly a decade despite the team never breaking the 70 point barrier.

On the patented DGB How bad was it? 100 point scale: 95. McNamara re-defined incompetence. Despite having a number of high draft picks, the Leafs seemed permanently mired in mediocrity. In these times of three point games, its’ hard to imagine a club putting up a .367 winning percentage for a single season, never mind the better part of a decade. The only upside was there were zero expectations for the club. This wasn’t a team that flirted with success and broke your heart, this was a team that backed into the playoffs when the Red Wings had a 40 point season.

1988 – 1989 Gord Stellick

Winning %: .390 (28-46-8)

Playoff Appearances: 0 for 1

Notable draft picks: The all Belleville Bulls draft: Rob Pearson, Scott Thornton and Steve Bancroft (three first round picks, three duds).

Best Trade: Ken Wregget dealt for 2 first round picks

Worst Trade: Russ Courtnall for John Kordic

The Back Story

Gord Stellick was a member of the Leafs communications staff who was tapped in April 1988 to become the Leafs GM. He was the youngest GM in the history of the Leafs and the NHL. He lasted 18 months. Then it was on to a lifetime of broadcasting, pimpin' for weight loss programs and writing books about 1967, because that's what Leaf fans really want to be reminded of.

The Good

It was a short stay.

The Bad

Ballard continued his meddlesome ways, dictating coaching choices and player personnel moves.

Despite amassing draft picks, the Leafs drafted poorly.

The Crazy

The usual Ballard stuff.

Stellick resigned as GM when Ballard refused to let him hire his own coach for the 1989 season.

On the patented DGB How bad was it? 100 point scale: 90. More of the same terrible on-ice product, meddlesome ownership, poor drafting and lack of vision. At this point, being a Leaf fan was like being on some sort of long march to nowhere.


Coming Soon: Part II - Floyd Smith to JFJ (bookends of incompetence).

Game Films

I just finished two books: Gare Joyce's When the Lights Went Out - the story of the punch-up in Piestany at the 1987 WJC and a history of the NFL called America's Game by Michael McCambridge. I'll have more formal reviews of both books up later this month (spoiler alert: they are both fantastic reads) but in the interim I thought I'd post an anecdote and a link to this rather neglected blog space.

First up, the NFL...

There's a thoroughly entertaining read over at the Atlantic Monthly this month. One of their contributors gets his hands on the game film of the 1958 Baltimore Colts - New York Giants championship game and has the current Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff break down and analyze the film for him. I can't get enough of reporting from the backrooms of sport and first-person insights on coaching and strategy. This piece makes me long for something similar to be done in the NHL ranks. Perhaps a look at the 1976 Super Series when Red Army tied the Canadiens 3-3.

The piece can be read here.

And there's a supplementary piece with the author here.

And now to the World Juniors...

After the bench clearing brawl in '87, the Soviets and the Canadians were disqualified from the tournament and Canada was given 30 minutes to get out of Czechoslovakia (a clip of the horrific fight can be found here). The Canadian team was playing for the gold medal and instead went home empty handed. On top of that, the squad was all but abandoned by Hockey Canada and vilified by the majority of the Canadian and even American press (the story made the New York Times). Into this environment, an unlikely guy stepped forward to recognize the efforts of the Canadian Junior squad. I'll turn it over to Joyce:

"The day after the fight, Mr. Ballard was walking through the office and a few of us were talking about it," says Bob Stellick, then the Leafs' public relations man. "He asked us if there was anything he could do for these kids and I said 'well, you could give them medals.' I didn't really expect him to do anything, but right away he told me to look into it - and of course with Mr. Ballard it has to be top-end, no expenses spared stuff. The biggest medals, encased in glass." Ballard would claim it was an act of public-spiritedness, but it was more than that.

No. 1: Ballard was a contrarian - especially when it came to playing the media game. He loathed most of the commentators who were taking swings at the Canadian team. He couldn't have stomached the idea of agreeing with them.

No. 2: Ballard hated communists in general and the Soviet Union in particular. No use for them at all. Didn't want them playing in his arena. Ever. If the Canadian juniors lost their medal because of a Soviet plot, he thought someone should make restitution. And if it could be him, if he could get some headlines, all the better.

Once the medals were struck, Ballard brought in as many players as he could - almost all from the Ontario Hockey League - for a presentation prior to a Leaf game.

"A medal from the tournament would have been great, a gold medal even better," Shawn Simpson says. "But those medals from Harold Ballard signified a lot more for us. We didn't need a medal from that tournament to know what we about. But if we had those medals, we'd never know the public's appreciation."

Greg Hawgood: "It took weeks, maybe months, for me to get my medal. They did send me a letter first. The letter said that they were sorry it was taking so long, but that it was going to take some time to get it just right. When they sent it, I thought it was just great."

"It was a special thing for me, especially going on to play for the Leafs," Luke Richardson says. "Trophies or medals aren't something you think about or look at every day. They aren't something you look at or pull out of a drawer. Sometimes you don't even know where they are. I won't lie, I'd like to have had a medal from the tournament. And I think we earned that and deserved that. But I look at that medal from Harold Ballard as being as legitimate as any we would have been given at the tournament. I know where it is exactly - in my father's safe."

If only Ballard had that type of touch with his own hockey team...