Best and Worst Skaters in Leafs history ....

[Teeder Keon]

Teeder I did not see but my dad always said he was the warrior of all Leaf hockey warriors. He supposedly could lift team with skill and make it happen whatever it took whatever the situation --- a winner. A leader extraordinaire. He always says it is what the Leafs are missing now no disrespect to Tavares.

Your dad was absolutely right
I’m always torn between Keon and Teeder , but deep down I have to go with Teeder 5 cups and as you said “Warrior of all Warriors “
Tavares is in the same mold but doesn’t have that little extra ingredient , toughness and ability to fight if need be
Gilmour was very close to a Teeder exhibiting the same qualities
Keon was a different leader , very quiet but hard ass like no other

 

[deletethis]

Best (not mentioned yet):

Kaberle
Gaston Gingras
Matthieu Schneider
Bryan Berard
young Al Iafrate

Ron Ellis
Mike Gartner (speed, not edges and agility)


Worst:

Chris Kotsopoulos
Terry Johnson
Tracy Pratt

Paul Gardner, Dale McCourt and Mike Allison, all slow as molasses with good hockey skills


P.S. Words cannot describe how bad a skater Dan Maloney was. Think Milan Lucic with arthritis

 

[Teeder Keon]

Best (not mentioned yet):

Kaberle
Gaston Gingras
Matthieu Schneider
Bryan Berard
young Al Iafrate

Ron Ellis
Mike Gartner (speed, not edges and agility)


Worst:

Chris Kotsopoulos
Terry Johnson
Tracy Pratt

Paul Gardner, Dale McCourt and Mike Allison, all slow as molasses with good hockey skills


P.S. Words cannot describe how bad a skater Dan Maloney was. Think Milan Lucic with arthritis

Perfect takes
And hilarious thoughts on Maloney
Also good ones on Johnson and Pratt and in Gingras

 

[deletethis]

He just crossed the blue line...

If you ignore the offsides he caused, Jason Allison's zone entries numbers must have been out of this world, elite.

 

[Teeder Keon]

If you ignore the offsides he caused, Jason Allison's zone entries numbers must have been out of this world, elite.

He was on his way in when the other team and the rest of his line mates were coming out

 

[JayDog17]

Same guy best / worst...

Early in Leaf career..Jake Gardiner best
Last couple years of his Leaf career..Jake Gardiner worst

Looked like his hips aged 20 years every season the last few.

 

[ToMaLe]

Best: Mogilny, Iafrate, Leipsic, Kapanen and Berard

Worst: Marincin, Lumme, Allison, McGill and Kristich

Hard to choose between Mogilny and Berard, they were the best of the best. I don’t call Marincin, spaghetti legs for nothing.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Best - Matt Lombardi

worst - Jason Allison

 

[Primary Assist]

Best have all been said with honorable mentions to Grabner, Mason Raymond, and Jason Blake.

Worst: Ryan Hollweg

 

[rumman]

Best (not mentioned yet):

Kaberle
Gaston Gingras
Matthieu Schneider
Bryan Berard
young Al Iafrate

Ron Ellis
Mike Gartner (speed, not edges and agility)


Worst:

Chris Kotsopoulos
Terry Johnson
Tracy Pratt

Paul Gardner, Dale McCourt and Mike Allison, all slow as molasses with good hockey skills


P.S. Words cannot describe how bad a skater Dan Maloney was. Think Milan Lucic with arthritis

by far the best skater I've had the pleasure of seeing play in person was Mike Gartner, and isn't even close. This was I think his 2nd to last year playing and his acceleration was simply unbelievable, I'm certain he was part cheetah.

 

[ottomaddox]

Best

Grabner

 

[TheProspector]

Too many horrible skaters to count.

Anyone before 10-15 years ago shouldn't be considered. Nobody from the 90s or early 2000s teams could hold a candle to *league average* skater now.

And what is a good skater, anyway? Top speed? Acceleration? Edges?

Using some arbitrary combination of the above using nothing but my judgement....

Best:

• Phil Kessel
• Kasperi Kapanen
• Michael Grabner
• Jason Blake
• Viktor Stalberg
• Brendan Leipsic
• Boyd Devereaux
  
• Tyler Ennis

I know. A lot of these players aren't good NHLers. But they all had phenomenal wheels. The brain and hands held them back from being elite NHLers.

This team has a lot of great skaters, of course. But their wheels don't define them. What makes them great players is being able to pull off plays at high speed. Other than Kapanen, I doubt our current crop of speedsters are actually faster than the other players on this list.

 

[Teeder Keon]

Danny Daoust wasn’t a very good skater

Gary Leeman was pretty good

 

[TheProspector]

BTW... another guy who didn't make the big club, but should be on this list is Robbie Earl. That guy was obscenely fast. And while he never put it together at the NHL level, he's been a prolific scorer in seemingly every other professional league in the world -- Swiss league, SHL, AHL...

 

[Erdinger]

I agree with the Dave Dunn nomination

 

[Gallagbi]

There's not nearly enough Dave Andreychuk love (hate?) for worst skater in this thread.

Loved watching Gartner skate personally.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Too many horrible skaters to count.

Anyone before 10-15 years ago shouldn't be considered. Nobody from the 90s or early 2000s teams could hold a candle to *league average* skater now.

And what is a good skater, anyway? Top speed? Acceleration? Edges?

Using some arbitrary combination of the above using nothing but my judgement....

Best:

• Phil Kessel
• Kasperi Kapanen
• Michael Grabner
• Jason Blake
• Viktor Stalberg
• Brendan Leipsic
• Boyd Devereaux
  
• Tyler Ennis

I know. A lot of these players aren't good NHLers. But they all had phenomenal wheels. The brain and hands held them back from being elite NHLers.

This team has a lot of great skaters, of course. But their wheels don't define them. What makes them great players is being able to pull off plays at high speed. Other than Kapanen, I doubt our current crop of speedsters are actually faster than the other players on this list.

Not sure about that one although could be true. There have been many mentions and a couple guys I know who have told me Orr was timed in 13 seconds around rink blue line to same line. The difference is today everyone can do it. Whereas before you could wipe out virtually every defender and half the forwards. Also heard from a good source the Rocket was sub 13. Put some current skates on Orr and Rocket and they likely demolish the existing records.

 

[deletethis]

Don't forget the superior modern training regimens in addition to the better skates.

Old timers told me that Dick Duff was a great skater as well as a young Carl Brewer.

 

[napoleon in rags]

I was shocked at how bad Clarkson skated. I felt he should have had a pillow strapped to his bum.

 

[The Iceman]

A bunch of great choices. Really most enforcers and many D of the 80's 90's were bad skaters.
Keying on some unnamed.

Glenn Anderson
Ken Linseman
Grabovski

some of the bads
GOAT
Zettler
Larry Murphy (Slow)
Ken THE BOMBER Baumgartner
Garth Butcher
Yanik Pearrualt-185 points in 67 games one jr season. If only he could skate he would have been Lemieux II
Bob McGill
Kevin Maguire
Ric Nattress

 

[FreeBird]

A bunch of great choices. Really most enforcers and many D of the 80's 90's were bad skaters.
Keying on some unnamed.

Glenn Anderson
Ken Linseman
Grabovski

some of the bads
GOAT
Zettler
Larry Murphy (Slow)
Ken THE BOMBER Baumgartner
Garth Butcher
Yanik Pearrualt-185 points in 67 games one jr season. If only he could skate he would have been Lemieux II
Bob McGill
Kevin Maguire
Ric Nattress

Barry Melrose and Richard Mulhearn come to mind.

 

[ITM]

Best: Salming, Courtnall, Berard, Mogilny, Marner...Edgework-heavy.

Worst: Valiquette, Marsh, Smith...Skating with intention appeared absent in these cases.

 

[crump]

Kapanen
Brian Curran

 

[67Cup]

Going back to older days, Syl Apps was a superlative skater. At one point, a contest was set up featuring the top skaters of each of the then seven NHL teams. Apps won.

As you can see from my avatar, I have nothing against George Armstrong, but in his last few seasons his skating was painful to watch. I can still see him in my minds eye all but crawling down the right wing to score the empty net goal that clinched the 67 Cup. It seemed to take an eternity.

Allan Stanley, from the same vintage, also looked like he was skating on snowshoes in his later years.

Reilly and Kapanen from the present team are about as good as I have seen in recent years.

Bad skater? Pick your favourite enforcer.

 

[Marshy]

Me for sure.