Tribute to greats long overdue
Plenty of worthy options for Leafs’ public monument plans
Johnny Bower, the 89-year-old Maple Leafs alumnus, has been called legendary and gregarious and fearless. But as a sub-six-footer of rural Saskatchewan stock, maybe no one has ever described him as statuesque.
Still, if Leafs goalie James Reimer had his way, he’d nominate the great Leafs netminder as a candidate to be honoured with a bronze likeness in the shadow of the Air Canada Centre.
“He’s someone who’s a great part of the history here and a great story and the fans love him,” Reimer was saying on Friday, speaking of Bower. “I think it’d be great to honour him in that way and give something to the fans. I think that’d be a great thing to do.”
Reimer was asked to mull over the options of bronze-worthy Leafs alumni on the day a club source confirmed a published report that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has filed an application to municipal authorities to erect a monument honouring former players, in or around Maple Leaf Square. It will be the franchise’s first foray into playerlionizing public sculpture, and certainly the Leafs are playing catch-up to peers in the heritage-franchise community.
The Boston Bruins have already enshrined Bobby Orr, mid-air in the wake of a Stanley Cup-winning goal, near TD Garden. The Montreal Canadiens have given the basemetal treatment to a handful of greats, among them Rocket Richard and Guy Lafleur. Even the Chicago Blackhawks, for years the league’s laughingstock in scorched alumni relations, are the proud owners of duelling artistic takes on 1961 Stanley Cup teammates Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita.
The problem for the Leafs is choosing which player, or two, or more, to honour.
Dave Keon, MVP of the iconic 1967 Stanley Cup champions, is a certain generation’s choice for Greatest Leaf of All; he’s certainly the greatest Leaf whose number is not yet honoured in the Air Canada Centre’s rafters. But Keon’s historic lack of interest in being a part of such festivities has long been seen as a stumbling block.
The list of possibilities, after that, is long. The resonance of names likely depends on one’s birth date and enthusiasm for history.
Frank Mahovlich is among the most accomplished pros to ever play for the blue and white, even if current Leafs forward Phil Kessel acknowledged this season that he’s never heard of the Big M.
Hap Day was a Toronto player, coach and manager whose name was etched onto the Stanley Cup seven times in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Leafs of more recent vintage — Darryl Sittler, Borje Salming, Dougie Gilmour, Wendel Clark — all put forth storied careers but never hoisted the Cup for Toronto.
With no clear-cut great to honour, one early working concept is a multi-player design not dissimilar to the sculpture that currently sits outside the Hockey Hall of Fame. “Our Game,” as it’s known, is a 17-foot bronze tribute to the spirit of the sport that depicts a handful of joyous-looking players on a bench. It’s a photo opportunity as well as an art piece, complete with spaces for fans to insert themselves into the scene.
Such a motif, if employed by the Leafs, might allow the franchise to roll out individual bronzed tributes a player or two at a time, slowly adding to the scene over months or years. In a city where the rare sporting-venue monument amounts to a statue of Ted Rogers, the late Blue Jays owner who was never noted for loving any game other than cutthroat capitalism, the Leafs idea, spearheaded by MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke, is a welcome brainstorm.
Mind you, it could take a while to execute. The piece will likely be rolled out as part of the club’s centennial of its 1917 founding. Deliberations won’t be willy-nilly. There is talk of forming an alumni committee to help decide the particulars, as well as considering fan input.
Toronto centre Peter Holland, who grew up a Leafs fan, said his first vote would go to a fellow centreman.
“Right off the top of my head I’d think of a guy like Mats Sundin, who spent the majority of his career in Toronto and obviously helped the team have some winning seasons and put up some great numbers,” Holland said. “But you can go back even further. There’s guys like Darryl Sittler, Johnny Bower, even. There’s quite a few to pick from.”
Plans for the Leafs statue are said to be in their “conceptual stages.” And if a few players can’t be chosen, consider a populist concept: A giant mechanical golf driver that marks the end of every Stanley Cup-less season by dramatically crushing a player of the fan base’s choosing — in effigy, of course.
Toronto centreman Nazem Kadri, who grew up a supporter of the history-embracing Habs, is in favour of the idea — not the part about the oversized golf club, but of bringing a select few of the club’s legends into an exclusive and celebratory club.
Kadri remembers the first time he walked through Montreal’s Centennial Plaza, where the Canadiens house the statues of their elite alumni. The moment, he said, proved emotionally “overwhelming”.
“It brings tradition and legacy to the rink. Obviously our logo goes back years and years. It’s something that you see quite often with the storied franchises . . . I’m all for it.”
Hear, hear. Bring on the bronze debate.