Leafs Madness: Final Four

It’s safe to say the voyage to the Final Four to determine the greatest fan favourite Leaf has gone exactly as expected. Sundin, Matthews, Bower, and Clark are all names you’d expect to see here. Beating out Gilmour, Sittler, and Keon to do so wasn’t a particularly easy thing to do, but here we are.

We have one multi Stanley Cup winner, but he’s the only cup winner on the list. In fact, Bower is the hardware King of the group, as he also has a pair of Vezinas to his name.

Mats Sundin leads the way with the most All-Star appearances, and has a Mark Messier Leadership award to his name. Both he and Bower are also in the Hall of Fame, so there’s that too.

Wendel Clark is a two time All-Star and one of three first overall draft picks on the list, one of two with the selections being made by the Leafs. Like Matthews, he had a great pace for hitting 50 goals, but never got there, making Sundin officially the only 50 goal guy left in the bracket.

As for Matthews. Well, the story isn’t fully written on him, but he’s already scored more goals in a season than Clark, with a better pace than Sundin. He’s already been in four All-Star games eclipsing Clark’s total, and is the only Calder Trophy winner of the group. Fast forward another 15-20 years and he’s likely the 3rd Hall of Famer on this list, with potentially other accolades as well. It’s up to you if you want to give Matthews credit for what he could still achieve, but he’s likely in tough against established Leafs legends.

The story that got us here…

The Match-ups: