(Ed. Note: Welcome to the Puck Daddy 2013 summer project, the National Hockey League of Nations. We’ve recruited 30 writers/blogs to identify the best player in their favorite team’s history for each major nationality that creates the fabric of our beloved NHL: Canada, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland and The Rest of The World. It’s their criteria, as long as they can justify it. Read, debate and enjoy! If you want to do so on Twitter, it's #NHLoN.)

By Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Canada: Dave Keon



Dave Keon was a wonderful Maple Leaf for 15 seasons but may have been, if not the “best”, certainly the most complete all-around player in the NHL for a five-year period in the 1960s.

I would argue that between 1962 and 1967, no other player did more things well than the diminutive Leaf center. He was arguably the fastest skater in the league, and a peerless penalty-killer. Remarkably, he virtually never took a penalty himself, averaging maybe two minors a season throughout most of his career. He was strong on face-offs, but perhaps most importantly was often tasked with shutting down the best center on the opposing teams, a job he handled splendidly.

While not primarily a goal-scorer, his trademark was nonetheless scoring huge goals, including at playoff time. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in the spring of ’67 when the underdog Leafs last won a Cup, but it’s difficult to imagine he would not have won it more often had that trophy been in existence when the Leafs ruled the NHL between 1962 and 1964. He was a relentless forechecker and while not known as a physical player in the conventional sense, he used angles so expertly that he led his team in ‘take-outs’ — whereby he eliminated the man who just had the puck from the play entirely — every season.

While I have many vivid memories of individual plays and moments involving Keon (his ‘hat trick’ in Game 7 of the 1964 semi-finals in Montreal, when the Leafs won 3-1 jumps to mind, along with his clinching markers in the last game of the ’63 and ’64 Cup finals against the Red Wings), what stands out most for me, even after all these years, was his consistency. Virtually every game was, for Keon, a carbon copy of the game that preceded it. He was that consistent in terms of quality, effort and determination. Having said that, I would still make the case that in big games and key moments, especially come playoff time, he somehow found an even higher gear.

How good was Keon? I will always recall listening (on the radio this night, not television) to the legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt calling a late-season Leaf game at Maple Leaf Gardens toward the end of the 1972-’73 NHL schedule. After losing several key young players to the fledgling World Hockey Association before that season began, the Leafs struggled mightily that year. Yet Keon had another standout season, causing Hewitt to remark that evening, “Where would this Maple Leaf team be without Dave Keon?”

Indeed. One line said it all.

There have been many other Canadians who wore the Leaf crest with pride and distinction, and I would not argue if any one of them were named the greatest “Canadian-born” Maple Leaf. But as good and important as all those players were, my guess is few, if any, would take umbrage with the notion of Keon standing at the top of this list.

- Michael Langlois, Vintage Leaf Memories

Finland: Niklas Hagman



If you want to gain an understanding of where the Leafs have gone wrong in the past couple of decades, you should look no further than the list of Finnish Maple Leaf players. Every mistake this franchise has made be represented with a Finnish player.

The Leafs attempting to get the last drop of blood out of an aging veteran: Jyrki Lumme.

Taking a chance on a player who might need a change of scenery: Aki Berg.

Giving up a high draft pick for a backup goaltender: the pile of flaming hot garbage that is Vesa Toskala.

That leaves one Finn that Toronto fans haven’t tried to erase from our memories: Niklas Hagman. Nik was brought in to the Leafs organization in that magical time after the firing of John Ferguson Jr. and before the hiring of Brian Burke when Leafs fans thought anything was possible. Cliff Fletcher was temporarily in charge and was going to right the ship by building a foundation for success in Toronto.

Story continues