Name a former Leaf you liked but no one else liked

[Papi 4 Hart]

Also was a massive Johnny Pohl fan. Guy was a great grinder.

 

[The Iceman]

Cheating but submitting a whole line

Inhacak, Poddubny, Frycer

Frycer part of a BAD trade tree I painfully remember

Lanny McDonald for Wilf Paiement
Paiement for Frycer
Frycer for Darren Veitch
Veitch for Keith Osborne
Osborne for smoke and mirrors

The race to zero was on...

 

[Big Muddy]

Was a massive fan of Pavel Kubina. I think he unfairly gets lumped into the “failed attempts to rebuild the Defense”.


I remember when I was constantly bashed for liking Hyman. Always knew he had it in him.

Kubina is who I thought of as well. Supposedly he was not good enough but then we moved him and got Exelby.

Didn't think of Hyman, but that's a good suggestion as well.

 

[Big Muddy]

Everyone was pumped when we got him from Calgary. But he soon lost his shine, no?

I remember the arguments about whether he was a top 10 defender in the league, or just a top 15. LOL.

 

[LeafSadist]

Jeremy Williams, but Mess also liked him. It's Jeremy time.

 

[Carltons Cup]

Michael Hutchinson

 

[tmlms13]

Does Sundin count? People hated him because of what he was traded for and how he exited.

 

[ITM]

Cheating but submitting a whole line

Inhacak, Poddubny, Frycer

Same. Loved Frycer. Rose colored glasses perhaps, but I did.
HM: Tim Brent. Jonas Gustavsson - really wanted him to succeed. Dimitri Kristich - he seemed to bring out the most of Antropov's potential. Svehla - wasn't here long enough. Neither was Mike Van Ryn.

And then there was Bryan Berard...

Edit: Think I trailed off to another topic, but...Memory Lane and what not.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

When you say "no one liked" do you mean Leafs fans hated them or were they underappreciated? Players that I thought were very good but underappreciated and cast aside for no apparent reason:

- Lee Stempniak
- Hagman the Bagman
- Domenic Moore.
- Joffrey Lupul (although he got more appreciation than the others).

Those are the ones that come to mind for some reason but there's always been these types of players with skill and compete that never seemed to carve out a spot.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Does Sundin count? People hated him because of what he was traded for and how he exited.

You mean how he refused to be traded? People were pissed at the time, especially when he went to Vancouver, but that's ancient history. People look back fondly on Sundin.

 

[Joel Ward]

I was a Toskala fan until the bitter end

 

[tmlms13]

You mean how he refused to be traded? People were pissed at the time, especially when he went to Vancouver, but that's ancient history. People look back fondly on Sundin.

Ya cause it took 8 years to replace him.

 

[The Iceman]

Someone mentioned Berard, I don't think anyone dislike him but that was one of the biggest travesties of the Leaf fans of that era.

My buddy lived in Detroit and watched him play in junir. He said he was the Gordie Howe hatrick candidate any night. Unbelievable skater.
30 goal guy as a jr.

He was part of a young and talented blue line Leafs management had put together.
Berard
Kaberle
Markov
Yushkevich
Then the year after his injury the team added McCabe for Karpotsev. That would have been an awesome young 5 for many years.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Dominic Moore is a good one

Hoglund

 

[Smif]

Ian White

 

[cupcrazyman]

Phil Kessel

 

[socko]

David Andreychuk was underappreciated. He was never hated though.

 

[deltamachine]

Has anyone mentioned Alex Ponikarovsky? I always rooted for Alex (and Antropov) just cuz Cherry kept disrepecting him.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

I liked Chad Kilger. Buddy had a clapper and a half.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

I like both Phaneuf and Clarkson, I really hate how salaries impact how we view players. Obviously Clarkson was insanely disappointing but he did leave the bench to fight John Scott in his first preseason game, if he was a known plug I think Leaf fans would've loved him.

Also I'll throw out an opposite: the player I hated everyone loved, Conor Brown. He was such a boring, nothing, no event player and for some reason he wore the "hardest working guy" label, contrary to Leaf fans belief he was not exactly Hyman out there. He was a somewhat positionally safe guy that's the best I'll say about him he was not out there grinding hard on the forecheck every shift, this fanbase has amnesia sometimes.

 

[Twowingcantfly]

I really liked Uncle Leo and still do. It became popular to rip him in recent days. It's kind of a shame.

Uncle Leo has always been a BIG favorite of mine.

It was a very sad day Bryan Barard lost his eye at the end of Marian Hossa's stick. I feel would have witnessed the greatest defenseman ever to lace up the blue and white..