We Ranked All of the Maple Leafs Logos, Past and Present

Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs will reveal their newest logo in the fifth episode of their The Leaf: Blueprint documentary series. We already have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to look like, but before we see the official logo, let’s take a look at all of the blue and white (and sometimes green) Maple Leafs logos of years past. And because this is the internet, let’s rank them… because that’s what we do, right?

According to SportsLogos.net, the Leafs have used eight primary logos throughout their 99-year history, with what I’d call four truly unique designs and four more that were slight variations of others. While the Leafs have actually used far more variations in jerseys and merchandise, we’re going to stick to ranking the eight core logos. Contributing to this vote was Jeff Veillette, Jon Steitzer, Shawn Reis and myself. While it’s fair to question Jeff’s sense of style, I assure you these rankings are extremely correct. Let’s get started…

Did you know the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t always wear blue and white? Their first jerseys, in fact, were white sweaters with a green, very leafy logo. Of all the logos on this list, the Green Leaf stuck around for the least amount of time – after a single season, the logo was switched to blue, and the rest is history. 

The earliest incarnation of today’s Leafs logo, the 1970/1971 11-point leaf featured sharper lines than had ever been seen before. That said, it looked disproportionate in a number of areas and featured an abnormally skinny stem. Somehow, it stuck around for 11 years. The 70’s were a weird time, man.

It’s the first ever blue Toronto Maple Leaf. Too bad it featured a 48-point leaf that was ugly as sin. This iteration stuck around for ten years, making way for one of our most favourite designs.

It looks like Toronto’s current logo, but in a lighter shade of blue, and a major improvement over the 1970-1971 logo that looked unequal and unbalanced. 

This is probably the Leaf you grew up with. Which means you’ve only ever known pain and heartbreak as a Toronto fan. We’re so sorry. Just a few more months until we can put this guy behind us for good.

A classic. So good, it was brought back for the Leafs’ alternate jerseys between 2000 and 2011, and those jerseys appeared to sell like hotcakes. Too bad the ‘Toronto’ was so badly misaligned. Good effort, graphic designers in the early 1960’s!

A classic of a classic. Not much changed between the 1938 and 1963 logos besides a double-outline around the whole leaf. The new logo to be released tomorrow night looks most like a modern variation of this logo, which is excellent.

Our favourite logo, almost unanimously… Remember what I said about questioning Jeff’s sense of style? It only stuck around for three years, but this leaf was so good the franchise brought it back for the alternate jersey that’s currently in use. It’s a shame this one didn’t have a longer run, and we hope it can stick around for a little while longer on Toronto’s third jersey even after the new logo is revealed. You know, unless MLSE wants to bring back the Toronto Arenas ‘T’, then sign us up.