While the Toronto Maple Leafs have made two significant changes two years in a row, first relieving general manager Kyle Dubas of his functions in 2023 and, firing head coach Sheldon Keefe after the Maple Leafs’ latest first-round elimination, hockey is played on the ice and not behind the bench or upstairs. To be successful in the playoffs, their top players will have to play in a way that is more suited to playoff hockey, and to do that, they can certainly take Maple Leafs’ legend Doug Gilmour as an inspiration.
The Killer Way
Gilmour (nicknamed Killer early in his career) spent 20 years in the NHL, playing for Toronto in seven of those years. Although he didn’t play for the Maple Leafs for long, he was the centrepiece of their two playoff runs to the conference final in 1992-93 and 1993-94.
Even though he wasn’t very tall or big, Gilmour was the perfect combination of skills and grit in a forward. The talented center played 1,474 games in the NHL gathering 1,414 points along the way. In his 393 games in Toronto, he logged 452 points and 386 penalty minutes.
After Maple Leafs’ captain Wendel Clark was sent to the Quebec Nordiques in the trade that brought Mats Sundin to Toronto, Gilmour was given the “C” to wear proudly on his jersey. A leader through and through, he was never afraid to go to the hard-hitting areas. He got his nose dirty in the net front battles and never thought twice before retrieving a puck from along the boards.
His willingness to get right into the action allowed him to have the two best seasons of his career in Toronto. In his first complete season with the Maple Leafs, he got 127 points in 83 games and followed that performance up with 111 points in 83 games.
At times, his play on the edge made him go too far when he broke Tomas Sandstrom’s forearm with a slash, for instance. But most of the time, he knew where the limit was and never was a liability to his team because of his gritty play.
What About Now?
These days, the Maple Leafs do not have a Gilmour-type player in their lineup. Last summer, they went out of their way to sign free agent Ryan Reaves to a three-year contract, but he is a unidimensional remnant of the “goon” species.
Thankfully, general manager Brad Treliving signed unrestricted free agents Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi as well. He signed them to team-friendly contracts with a reasonable cap hit. Bertuzzi counted for $5.5 million while Domi’s cap hit was $3 million. Both players had satisfactory seasons, but not in a “here’s a contract with a massive cap hit and a lot of term” way. While neither is as efficient and lethal with the puck as Gilmour was, they are the closest thing Toronto has. Treliving should put those two files at the top of his to-do list this summer.
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Gilmour-like players are hard to find in free agency and that’s the best reason for the Maple Leafs to try and mold their current players for playoff hockey. Toronto announced last week they had hired Craig Berube as their new head coach. This hire could prove to be key in the Maple Leafs’ transformation project. Berube played 1,054 games in the NHL and logged 3,149 penalty minutes whilst getting 159 points. He’s no Gilmour either, but there’s no doubt he’s well aware of the toughness it takes to win the Stanley Cup. In 2019, he led the St. Louis Blues to the ultimate prize and the Final against the Boston Bruins was quite the physical battle. Berube has beaten the Bruins when it mattered the most, and he can bring that as an example to sell his brand of grittier hockey to the Maple Leafs.
It’s time for Berube to go back in time and remind the young Maple Leafs how one of their most respected players ever played and how that style of play got his Toronto side to the conference final twice. A feat they’ve only been able to replicate once since then. Maple Leafs fans like to say Montreal Canadiens fans live in the past, but sometimes it’s good to know where you came from to get where you’re trying to go.
