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Random question: who is the best Finn to ever play for Toronto?

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Suntouchable13

Suntouchable13

Registered User
Dec 20, 2003
45,079
21,605
Toronto, ON
This is pretty random, but I thought I’d start this thread anyway to see what people think. I know we’ve had some great players from Sweden play for us, but not that many from Finland. So who is the best Finn to ever play for Toronto Maple Leafs? Is it the legendary Aki Berg? :D

Leo Komarov? But he is not even an 100% ethnic Finn. So who is the best Finn to ever play for Toronto?
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I'd go with Komarov, but if you exclude him then probably Kasperi Kapanen.

Berg or Jyrki Lumme (anyone remember him?) on D.

Even including Leo there are only 9 skaters to choose from.

Only 3 goalies, with Toskala the only one to appear in more than a couple of games.


An all-Finnish Leafs lineup:

Hagman - Komarov - Kapanen
Lumme - Berg
Toskala
 
In terms of ability it has to be Olli Jokinen, then Lumme, then Hagman, the latter of which had the best/biggest impact by far; Loved Niklas Hagman as a Leaf.

Edited to add: And the cycle (i.e. Phaneuf) that Hagman
 
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Out of the big hockey nations, Finland is probably the country Toronto has never had that much of a connection to. The best Finn to ever be part of the Leafs organization was Tuukka Rask.
 
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I mean, Jokinen played six games with the Leafs... should he even count?

There hasn't been many Finnish players on the team over the years. Not good enough to be worth remembering anyway. When it comes to drafting quality hockey players Finland just isn't as attractive as Sweden.

Nobody wants to take home the ugly stepbrother.
 
Stephen said:
Out of the big hockey nations, Finland is probably the country Toronto has never had that much of a connection to. The best Finn to ever be part of the Leafs organization was Tuukka Rask.
Click to expand...

Toronto and Edmonton are mirrors when it comes to this. Toronto has a lot of great Swedes and connections, but not many Finns. Edmonton has a history of great Finn's, but only Ekholm could be considered a great Swede for them.

Don't think any Finn who's actually played for the Leafs could be considered "great" for Toronto. Even Russia has better representation here with Mogilny, Berezin, Kulemin, Markov, Mironov, and Yushkevich.

My vote goes to Komarov.
 
TMLBlueandWhite said:
I mean, Jokinen played six games with the Leafs... should he even count?

There hasn't been many Finnish players on the team over the years. Not good enough to be worth remembering anyway. When it comes to drafting quality hockey players Finland just isn't as attractive as Sweden.

Nobody wants to take home the ugly stepbrother
Click to expand...
There are only 6 Finnish players who have played more than 9 games in a Leafs uniform, and that's including Leo Komarov.
 
Since he arrived in the 2011-12 season, Leo Komarov has the most hits of any Leaf (despite only 2/3 the ice time, he had 35% more hits than #2 - Phaneuf), behind only Matt Martin and Colton Orr in hits/60 (minimum 100 games), and fifth in takeaways/60 behind Peter Holland (!) Mitch, Matty, and Willy (minimum 100 games).

If you go back to the 2000-01 season, the only difference (other than Phaneuf getting closer in total hits) is Mike Brown also ahead of him in hits/60.

He also kept Naz in line when the played together. Not too shabby at all.
 
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