Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional hockey club that plays in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Maple Leafs play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference and are one of the "Original Six" NHL teams. The team has won the Stanley Cup thirteen times and is the second-most-winningest NHL club, behind the Montreal Canadiens. The Maple Leafs and their ownership organization, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, are one of the wealthiest teams in professional sports, with home games usually sold out and with high individual ticket prices. The fan base, also known as "Leafs Nation," is one of the most loyal in sports history. The Maple Leafs are one of the most recognizable NHL brands globally.

The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917 in the inaugural season of the newly formed National Hockey League. The new league was founded, in large part, on part of the other franchises of the National Hockey Association (NHA) in an attempt to remove Toronto owner Eddie Livingstone and his Toronto Blueshirts from the league. This arose from disputes between Eddie Livingstone and the other owners.

Maple Leafs logos through the team's history.

At the founding of the NHL, which was founded with no Toronto-based hockey clubs, a vacancy occurred after the Quebec Bulldogs sat the season out after the loss of their home arena. To balance the league out, over four teams, a temporary Toronto franchise was granted to the Toronto Arena Company, which had been the landlord of Livingstone's Blueshirts. The new team borrowed the Blueshirts players for the inaugural season; however, the Arena Company did not pay for the players, and Livingstone filed suit for payment and the revenue earned from the players.

And despite the Arena Company having promised to return the Blueshirt players to Livingstone, the Arena Company formed a club, the Toronto Arena Hockey Club, which was separated from the Arena Company due to the money owed to Livingstone. The Toronto Arenas were accepted as a franchise in good standing in the NHL, but with interference from Livingstone, the team had a dismal early season and, by 1919, were forced into bankruptcy.

Despite the ties to the Blueshirts, the Maple Leafs have never claimed the Blueshirts' history and their Stanley Cup wins as their own. Instead, the franchise claims the history of the "temporary" Toronto franchise of 1917-1918, which became the Toronto Arenas for the 1918-1919 season.

When the team went bankrupt in 1919, it was sold to a group including Charlie Querrie, who also managed the Toronto Tecumsehs lacrosse club and the Toronto St. Patricks Club, an amateur ice hockey club in the city. The new ownership group renamed the team the Toronto Tecumsehs on December 8, 1919. But by December 22, 1919, with the acceptance of the Toronto Arenas group into the NHL, the club was renamed the Toronto St. Patricks. The team changed its colors to green and white, and the The St. Patricks name was chosen to appeal to the large population of Torontonians of Irish descent.

Opening night program for the Maple Leafs Gardens.

By 1927, despite securing a Stanley Cup, the St. Patricks were in trouble due in part to lawsuits with Livingstone, and the St. Patricks were put up for sale. A group from Philadelphia made a strong ownership bid, but Conn Smythe headed a local ownership group, and the Philadelphia bid was rejected. Smythe renamed the team to Toronto Maple Leafs, in part to recognize the national symbol of Canada, but also, according to some stories, to pay tribute to the World War One Canadian regiment named the "Maple Leaf" regiment in which Conn Smythe served.

Conn Smythe also organized a group of investors to purchase the club but decided he needed a new, modern arena. To finance the construction, Smythe formed Maple Leaf Gardens Limited (MLGL) as a management company for ownership of the hockey team and arena. The MLGL management company offered shares, at around $10 each, as a free common share for each preferred share purchased. And workers involved in constructing the new arena were paid in part in MLGL stock.

Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard.

Through the 1940s and 1950s, Harold Ballard worked up the ranks of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. In the early 1960s, Ballard, along with Conn Smythe's son Stafford Smythe and John Bassett, purchased a controlling share of MLGL, with Ballard being made an alternate governor of the team and executive vice president of Maple Leafs Gardens. Through the 1960s, the Maple Leafs established a dynasty team that won several Stanley Cups. But by 1972, with the resignation of John Bassett and the death of Stafford Smythe, Ballard took control of the hockey team and the Maple Leaf Gardens. This began what has since been called the Ballard Era.

The Harold Ballard era saw many on-ice and off-ice changes, which did not bode well for the organization. Some called the Maple Leaf Gardens the "Carlton Street Cashbox" for Ballard's policies, such as shrinking the seat size to increase seating capacity. He removed a large portrait of Queen Elizabeth to add extra seating, refused to modernize the Maple Leaf Gardens, raised ticket prices (despite increasing seating capacity), refused to pay for players' equipment (which is standard in the NHL), and overcharged for concessions.

Maple Leafs' player with name hidden by same color nameplate.

Similarly, Ballard fought with the NHL over putting names on the players' jerseys. After a fine was threatened, Ballard put the names on the jerseys, but in the same color as the jersey so it could not be seen. This was a money-making strategy of Ballard for fans to purchase a program to know which player wore which number. Eventually, the NHL came back and emphasized the potential for fines after Toronto played with the same-color names against the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders. The third game on the road trip, against the New York Rangers, this came to an end, and the Maple Leafs wore their names in white on the back of their blue jerseys.

Ballard was known for his eccentric behavior and his outspoken comments, which caused controversy, as well as holding grudges against slights or perceived slights. This bled into conflicts with popular players, which led Ballard to trade away star player Lanny McDonald to spite captain Darryl Sittler (who had "slighted" Ballard through the captain's involvement in the NHL Player's Association, especially with Ballard being anti-union). Sittler later left the team, along with other key and star players.

Ballard would go through coaches before settling on Punch Imlach, who had already been in the Leafs' organization. Imlach previously coached the team to a Stanley Cup, but his tactics no longer worked, and he punished players to attempt to get them to play the way he wanted, which was later described by players as mean-spirited. The coaching by Imlach led to players leaving the team. Further, Ballard dismantled the promising core of young players, which resulted in the Maple Leafs not playing a winning season for the entire 1980s. The team would not improve on the ice until Ballard's death in April 1990.

Steve Stavro.

Steve Stavro was the executor of the late Ballard's will, and through paying off a $20-million loan owned by Ballard's estate, Stavro got an option to purchase Ballard's shares, which he did in 1994 after being in effective control of the team since 1990. Stavro eventually used his ownership position to privatize the MLGL group. To do so, Stavro received backing from TD Bank and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

The original price to privatize was $75 million, but the Canadian securities regulators added an additional $23.5 million to his purchase price. To cover this amount, he brought in Larry Tanenbaum as a partner. At the same time, MLGL was renamed Maple Leaf Sport & Entertainment (MLSE) as the ownership group purchased the Toronto Raptors and the Air Canada Centre to be a home for both teams.

In 2003, Stavro was facing financial difficulty, and he reached an agreement to restructure the company. Stavro sold his stake to Bell Globemedia, with other partners converting their debts into equity and receiving a direct ownership stake in MLSE. This left the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan as the controlling owner, with an estimated 58 percent, while minority partners Bell Globemedia owned around 15 percent, TD Capital owned around 13 percent, and Tanenbaum—who took over as non-executive chairman—owned the final approximately 13 percent. Bell Globemedia (which changed its name to CTVglobemedia) was bought out, with Tanenbaum purchasing half of its shares in 2008 and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan purchasing the final stake in 2009.

Beginning in 2010, it was reported that Rogers Communications, owner of the Toronto Blue Jays, was working to purchase the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan 66 percent stake in MLSE. By 2011, the Teachers' Plan purchased TD Capital's 13 percent stake, giving them around 79.5 percent of ownership and leaving Tanenbaum the only minority partner to simplify the sale. By late 2011, the Teachers' group announced the sale of their share to a partnership between Bell Canada Enterprises Inc and Rogers Communications in a deal valued at $1.32 billion. The new ownership group formed a controlling board for MLSE, but with any disagreements between the corporations settled outside of the board and privately.

Picture of Toronto Arenas team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were not envisioned as a founding member of the newly formed National Hockey League (NHL). Instead, the new league was founded by several franchises from the National Hockey Association in large part to keep Toronto Blueshirts' owner Eddie Livingstone out of the league, as he had rubbed many of the owners the wrong way. The Toronto Arena Company was invited to join the league when the home arena of the Quebec Bulldogs burned down, and the Arena Company formed a team from former Blueshirts' players to form the Toronto Arenas (the team was known alternatively still as the Toronto Blueshirts, Toronto Arenas, and the Torontos at the time).

This team, rather than Livingstone's Blueshirts', remains the team the modern Maple Leafs tie their founding to. By the end of the original NHL season, only three teams remained in the NHL, and the Toronto Arenas won the first Stanley Cup of the new league.

Toronto St. Patricks players.

The next season, in part due to difficulties from Livingstone, the Toronto Arenas withdrew from the league. The following season, the 1919-1920 season, ownership moved to Charlie Querrie, and the team was renamed the Toronto St. Patricks (also known as St. Pats). The new team went on to win the 1920 Stanley Cup and again won in 1922. However, by 1927, the St. Pats were floundering and at risk of moving to Philadelphia. Conn Smythe came forward to purchase the team and keep them in Toronto.

"King" Clancy in Toronto colors.

After purchasing the team, Conn Smythe renamed it the Maple Leafs. The name has been linked to both the Canadian national symbol and Conn Smythe's First World War fighting unit, the Maple Leaf Regiment. Smythe worked toward putting together a strong roster of players, including Joe Primeau, Red Horner, and goaltender Lorne Chabot. The new players pushed the team to the playoffs for the first time since 1925, in the 1928-1929 season. Other standout players included Charlie Conacher and Harvey Jackson. But in the 1930 playoffs, Toronto was absent. This led Smythe to purchase "King" Clancy from the Ottawa Senators for a sum of two players and $35,000.

The team of this era was not a powerhouse. Instead, the Maple Leafs were known as a gutsy, hardworking team, which was considered to exemplify Smythe's, perhaps apocryphal dictum, "If you can't beat them in the alley, you can't beat them on the ice." During the period, the popularity of the Toronto Maple Leafs was growing, due in large part to Foster Hewitt's radio broadcasts of Leafs' games. This increase in popularity led Smythe to decide the team needed a new home.

Maple Leafs Gardens.

Maple Leaf Gardens was built in 1931, taking five months for construction, and the Leafs played their first home game in the new arena on November 12, 1931. Built above the ice was a gondola for Foster Hewitt, from which he could broadcast the games. This, in turn, led to the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts (known originally as the General Motors Hockey Broadcast). The Toronto Maple Leafs rewarded the growing popularity with the first Stanley Cup (under the new name and ownership) in 1932. They failed to reach the Stanley Cup finals in 1933, and from 1935 to 1940, the team was knocked out of the finals.

Leading into the new decade, coach Dick Irvin was replaced by Hap Day, former Leafs defenseman. The lineup included players such as Gordie Drillon, Syl Apps, and Turk Broda, leading the Leafs to be considered the team to beat. That team would fall three games down against the Detroit Red Wings in the 1942 Stanley Cup finals, only to rally and win the next four games to take home their second Stanley Cup. However, the team lost star players to the Second World War and was eliminated from the playoffs in 1943 and 1944.

Syl Apps with the "stovepipe" Stanley Cup.

By 1945, the Toronto Maple Leafs met the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs, who had not lost many players to the war. The Maple Leafs eliminated them in six games. They met Detroit in the finals again and went on to seven games before Toronto won their third Stanley Cup. In the 1946-1947 season, Toronto was strengthened by the return of players from the war, and they met the Canadiens in the finals. The Leafs lost the first game in an embarrassing fashion (a score of 6 to 0), but they eventually edged the Canadiens in six games and won the 1947 Stanley Cup. They went on to win the 1948 and 1949 Stanley Cups as well.

Bill Barilko scoring Cup winning goal.

Toronto would meet the Red Wings again in the 1950 Stanley Cup final. This time, however, Red Wings' star player Gordie Howe was seriously injured, and the Red Wings vowed to bring the Leafs down, as the team was convinced the injury was deliberate. They knocked the Leafs out in seven games. The next season, due in part to heroics from Leafs defenseman Bill Barilko, who was credited with saving the series in game five and scoring the winning goal in overtime, secured the teams' fourth Stanley Cup in five years.

The success would be short-lived. Unbeknownst to the team, Bill Barilko went missing over the summer after leaving for a fishing trip. The team thought their star was returning and began the 1951-1952 season with Barilko's locker ready, only for the player to not show up. The loss of Barilko sent the Leafs down a path of mediocrity, falling out of playoff contention by 1953, their first time missing the playoffs since 1946.

Maple Leafs player Tim Horton.

King Clancy was made the coach of the team, and new players were brought in to refresh the lineup, including Tim Horton, George Armstrong, Ron Stewart, Dick Duff, Bob Pulford, Carl Brewer, and Frank Mahovlich. The team met limited success but did not reach the finals. Howie Meeker replaced Clancy as coach, only for the Leafs to be at the bottom of the NHL. Billy Reay replaced Meeker, but by 1958, the Leafs remained in fifth place in the six-team league.

Change came with new general manager, Punch Imlach, who fired coach Reay and named himself coach and reached the playoffs in 1959. This came after Imlach promised playoffs, and they made the playoffs on the last night of the season. Imlach's other bold prediction, that the Leafs would win the Cup, did not come true, but the team made it to the Stanley Cup finals.

1963 Maple Leafs with Stanley Cup.

Punch Imlach has often been credited with choosing veteran players from other NHL clubs to finish their careers in Toronto. The team in 1961 reached the playoffs, but it was be a short run as the team was riddled with injuries. That same year saw Conn Smythe relinquish control of the team to Stafford Smythe (his son), Harold Ballard, and John Bassett. The following season, 1962, the Leafs won the Cup. The 1962 cup came eleven years after their last win at the hands of Bill Barilko. That summer, Barilko's disappearance was put to rest, as his body was found in a plane wreck.

In 1963, the team won their second Stanley Cup in a row. And they would also win in the following year, tying the club's record of three Stanley Cups in a row. However, their success was stopped in 1965 at the hands of the Canadiens.

Maple Leafs with the Stanley Cup after winning in 1967.

In 1967, the Leafs returned to the Stanley Cup finals, where they played the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens had planned to win the Cup, as Montreal was hosting Expo 67 and the Canadiens planned to exhibit their winning Stanley Cup at the Quebec Pavilion. The Canadiens had reasons to expect to win, as they had won in the past two seasons and were a younger and better team than the Leafs. The Leafs had also endured a mediocre season. However, they would take the series to seven games and win their eleventh Stanley Cup under the Leafs name.

The 1967 season was the last of the "Original Six" era, as the NHL would expand to twelve teams over the off-season. The Maple Leafs struggled in the following season, with Imlach making several ill-advised trades. Players became disgruntled. In 1969, the team advanced to the playoffs only to be quickly beaten by the Boston Bruins. Imlach was fired at the end of the season.

Maple Leafs star forward Darryl Sittler.

The 1970s started with a new coach and general manager—John McLellan and Jim Gregory, respectively—and, due to their low placing in the season, drafted Darryl Sittler, who would become a dominant player for the Leafs and their future captain. The team was knocked out in the 1971 and 1972 playoffs, and by 1973, coach McLellan was replaced by Red Kelly. In 1972, another significant change came to the Maple Leafs as John Basset resigned and sold his shares in the Maple Leafs, and Stafford Smythe, the Leafs' president, died. This left Ballard to purchase the shares from both men and gave him a controlling interest in the team.

Maple Leafs defenseman Borje Salming.

Known as the "Ballard Era," this began a stretch of misery for fans and players of the Maple Leafs. In addition to spending a year behind bars for tax evasion (with forty-seven convictions of fraud and theft involving the funds from the Maple Leaf Gardens), Ballard led the team to ruin. His treatment of players, stemming from a lack of respect, saw many of those players leave the franchise for the newly formed competitor league, World Hockey Association (WHA, which lasted from 1972 to 1979). The team roster was rebuilt, including the acquisition of Lanny McDonald, Bob Neely, and Ian Turnbull, as well as signing Inge Hammerstrom and Borje Salming from Sweden. These additions brought life to the team, but they were still eliminated three playoffs in a row by the dominant Philadelphia Flyers.

Roger Neilson replaced Red Kelly as coach in the 1977–1978 season and led the team to the semi-finals. The team suffered from Ballard. He fired Roger Neilson in the late 1978–1979 season, only to reinstate the coach a few days later because Ballard could not find a replacement. In 1979, however, he finally replaced Neilson and general manager Jim Gregory by re-hiring Punch Imlach. This move was unpopular with the players, and Imlach treated the players poorly, feuding with several of them. By the end of the 1979–1980 season, Imlach traded nearly half the Leafs roster. In protest of the trades, particularly the trade of Lanndy McDonald, the captain of the Leafs, Darryl Sittler, cut the "C" off his sweater.

The true meat of the Ballard Era came in the 1980s. This is often considered the darkest period of Leafs' history, remembered not for the team on the ice but for the antics of Harold Ballard. Throughout the 1980s, the team was in disarray. This included replacing three general managers and seven coaches through the decade. Leafs star Darryl Sittler demanded a trade midway through the 1981–1982 season and was sent to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs missed the playoffs in 1982, 1984, and 1985.

However, this gave the Maple Leafs high draft spots, and they drafted talents such as Jim Benning, Gary Nylund, Russ Courtnall, and Al Iafrate. But Ballard refused to pay the salaries the players demanded, and the talent was lost to other NHL teams. One such player included Wendel Clark, who became one of the most popular players in Leafs' history, and whose physical play dragged the team to the playoffs from 1986 to 1988. However, in 1989, the Leafs missed the playoffs, and change was on the horizon.

Change came first with the passing of Harold Ballard and the end of the Ballard era. New owner Steve Stavro took control of the team, and Leafs fans looked forward to putting the Ballard era behind them. Stavro hired general manager Cliff Fletcher. Fletcher made trades to bring goaltender Grant Fuhr and winger Glenn Anderson to the Leafs in a seven-player trade with the Edmonton Oilers. He master-minded a ten-player trade with the Calgary Flames to acquire Doug Gilmour and Jamie Macoun.

Maple Leafs goaltender Felix Potvin.

The Leafs missed the 1991–1992 playoffs, but the new players brought a new spirit to the team, and coaching hire Pat Burns with new goaltender Felix Potvin led the Leafs to a winning record. The team ended the 1992–1993 season in third place and made it to the third round of the 1993 playoffs. The result repeated in the 1994 playoffs. Before the 1994–1995 season, Fletcher traded Leafs stars, including Wendel Clark for Mats Sundin, but the Leafs lost in the playoffs and slumped through the 1995–1996 season. Coach Burns was fired, and Doug Gilmour was traded. Fletcher was let go by the Leafs' owners, and the team missed the playoffs in 1997 and 1998.

The decade ended with a new coach, Pat Quinn; a new goaltender, Curtis Joseph; and a new arena, the Air Canada Centre. They ended the decade with a trip to the Stanley Cup semi-finals, where the team lost to the Buffalo Sabres.

Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis Joseph.

The Maple Leafs continued to improve through the early 2000s, reaching the 100-point mark and a division title for the first time in thirty-seven years. The team reached the second round of the playoffs in both 2000 and 2001 and reached the Eastern Conference Final in 2002 despite injuries to core players. The 2002–2003 season saw the Leafs lose Curtis Joseph and re-sign Doug Gilmour, only for Gilmour to suffer a season-ending knee injury, which led the former star to retire at the end of the regular season. And in the 2003–2004 season, the Leafs finished with over 100 points and second in their division.

However, the next season, 2004–2005, was canceled due to an NHL Lockout (as players and the league worked out new collective bargaining agreements, rule changes, and restructured the divisions and playoff formats). The Leafs struggled in the following season and would go seven consecutive seasons missing the playoffs. During this time, captain and star Mats Sundin left for the Vancouver Canucks, and general manager John Ferguson, Jr., was replaced on an interim basis by Cliff Fletcher before the team secured Brian Burke, who left the Anaheim Ducks to join the Leafs. Fans were anxious for a general manager to return the Maple Leafs to their glory days.

Brian Burke began his career by trading away the 2010 and 2011 first-round draft choices of the NHL Entry Draft to the Boston Bruins for forward Phil Kessel. However, the scoring winger did not lift the Leafs, and head coach Ron Wilson was dismissed in March 2012 after coaching since the 2008–2009 season. He was replaced with Randy Carlyle, who had won a Stanley Cup as coach of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. After the beginning of the 2012–2013 season, Brian Burke was relieved of his duties, and Dave Nonis, previously the assistant general manager to Brian Burke, was elevated to general manager.

Maple Leafs goaltender after overtime collapse against Bruins.

Under Nonis and Carlyle, the Leafs made it to the playoffs, ending their seven-year drought, where they faced long-time rivals Boston Bruins. The Bruins were the series favorites, and the Maple Leafs forced a game seven, where they were leading 4 to 1 with less than fifteen minutes remaining in the third period. A series of miscues for the Leafs led to the Bruins tying the game. In the succeeding overtime, the Bruins scored and eliminated Toronto from the playoffs.

The return to the post-season was short-lived. They failed to clinch a playoff spot in the 2013–14 season and finished twenty-third in the league. At the conclusion of that season, the Maple Leafs hired the NHL's former head of player safety, Brendan Shanahan, to be the club's president of hockey operations and alternate governor. The 2014–2015 season saw the Leafs' struggles continue. The team fired Carlyle during the season, replacing him with assistant coach Peter Horachek on an interim basis. Not long after the change, the Leafs set a franchise record eleven-game winless streak. They failed to qualify for the playoffs, and general manager Dave Nonis, along with most of the coaching staff, were relieved of their duties.

Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner.

The Maple Leafs continued to make changes, hiring Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Babcock, who the Leafs made the highest-paid coach in the NHL, and acquiring players such as goaltender Frederik Andersen through trades and Mitchell Marner through the draft. Phil Kessel was traded to Pittsburgh, and the Maple Leafs appointed Lou Lamoriello, long-time general manager of the New Jersey Devils and responsible for three Stanley Cups for New Jersey, as general manager. Finishing the 2015–2016 season at the bottom of the league, the Maple Leafs were given the privilege of selecting first overall in the NHL Entry Draft, with which they selected Auston Matthews.

The 2016–2017 season started with rookie Auston Matthews making his imprint on the franchise, scoring four goals in his NHL debut and eventually scoring 40 goals and 69 points for the season. Along with rookies William Nylander and Mitch Marner, the team pushed its way into the playoffs, where they were knocked out in the first round. The 2017–2018 campaign continued with the Maple Leafs building on their previous season and entered the playoffs with a greater position, but they would fall to the Boston Bruins in the first round.

The Maple Leafs continued to tweak their roster, working to build around their young players, which included signing center John Tavares. Similarly, Lou Lamoriello was replaced by assistant general manager Kyle Dubas, who brought a new philosophy towards roster building. Mike Babcock was fired as a coach in 2019 after allegations of bullying players and was replaced by Sheldon Keefe.

Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews.

On the ice, the team continued to grow, reaching new regular season points totals and being considered a top-five team in the NHL. And the team continued to reach the playoffs. However, in 2019, the Leafs met the Boston Bruins in the first round and lost in seven games. In 2020, in the bubble playoffs, they lost in the five-game play-in series to the Columbus Blue Jackets, which meant, technically, the team would miss the playoffs that season. Again in 2021, after having a successful regular season in the COVID-19 Canadian Division, they fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens after holding a commanding 3-to-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

In 2022, the Maple Leafs met the 2021 Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. The series went to seven games, with Toronto leading the series on several occasions before the Lightning would win the series. Again, in 2023, the Maple Leafs met the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. This time, the Leafs would prevail. However, they fell in the second round to the Florida Panthers. Following the playoff series loss, and based on feelings that the team was underperforming based on their roster talent, general manager Kyle Dubas was replaced by Brad Treliving.