The Ultimate Hipster Leafs Lineup

Man of many outlets and all-around funnyman Sean McIndoe, better known as “Down Goes Brown” gave Twitter a mid-day activity that was actually fun and entertaining. Basically, he approached hockey fans to build a starting lineup of players who played no more than 200 combined games for their team. As well, these players can’t be active; so no Matthews, Nylander, and Marner.

Combing through Leafs history, I pulled five centres, ten wingers, eight defencemen, and four goalies who could deliver you some bang for your buck in this game.

There’s a lot of interpretation to be done here, but given that Sean suggests that you get the player in their prime, and not as a Leaf, it’s hard to bet against Eric Lindros at centre. Before his injuries, he was arguably the most all-around dominant player to ever put on skates. The wings are significantly more of a crapshoot; Dickie Moore seems like a very safe bet, but after that, this is the area where you pick your second winger based off of where you’ve spent elsewhere. McIndoe cheated a bit and went “three forwards”, meaning Ron Francis was on his team.

Defence is a bit of a slam dunk. I think Harry Cameron might be the most underrated player in Leafs history, putting up absolutely obscene numbers from the point in the infancy of the league, but he’s played just a little too long to pick him over two other greats. Brian Leetch and Phil Housley were barely here; the latter for just one game, but they had massive careers and provide great value.

In goal, there are unsurprisingly a lot of big names to choose from, especially in recent eras. Olaf Kolzig, who was only here on paper, doesn’t apply. Cheevers and Barrasso are both borderline Top-50 goaltenders with less than five played, so they’re good bets. Sawchuk is a legend of a past time, but 91 games, once again, is a big investment.

With this considered, and with an attempt to actually use two wingers, My starting lineup is:

Owen Nolan – Eric Lindros – Dickie Moore

Phil Housley – Brian Leetch

Gerry Cheevers

The total there is just 168 games, which is very impressive. If I pulled Francis instead of Nolan, I can even bring the team down to 101 while still hosting an all-Hall group.

Just for the heck of it, here’s an attempt at getting a full 20-person roster down to under 1000 games (660 would be a chore):

Ron Francis – Eric Lindros – Dickie Moore

Andy Bathgate – Joe Nieuwendyk – Owen Nolan

Mike Gartner – Mike Peca – Marian Stastny

Mariusz Czerkawski – Olli Jokinen – Brad Boyes

Brian Leetch – Phil Housley

Harry Cameron – Matthieu Schneider

Glen Wesley – Randy Carlyle

Gerry Cheevers

Tom Barrasso