Current Maple Leafs Who Could Be Future Hall-of-Famers

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On Monday night, a new group of hockey greats were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, as Pavel Datsyuk, Shea Weber, Jeremy Roenick, David Poile, Colin Campbell, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell became enshrined in the hallowed venue, sitting mere steps away from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Scotiabank Arena home.

The annual Hall of Fame weekend was a good one for both the 2024 class and the Maple Leafs. While the newly enshrined group was being celebrated as they got their jackets and rings, Toronto continued its positive momentum with home victories over the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens (ignoring Tuesday’s dud against the Ottawa Senators). It’s fitting that the club stands as a major part of the Hall of Fame tradition, as the Maple Leafs have had more player inductees than any other NHL franchise.

It’s worth wondering, then, how some of the current Maple Leafs stack up for future Hall inclusion.

Auston Matthews

At 27 years of age, Auston Matthews has already won a Hart Trophy, Calder Trophy, three “Rocket” Richard Trophies and been named to a couple of All-Star Games. He has amassed 373 goals (more than Datsyuk) and 660 career points. In short, he is well on his way to enshrinement – if he isn’t there already.

Matthews is one of just nine NHLers to record two seasons of 60 goals or more. The other eight have all entered the Hall. In fact, he still has plenty of time to continue his impressive goal-scoring prowess and catch up to the likes of Brett Hull (three 60-goal seasons), Mario Lemieux and Phil Esposito (four) and even Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy (five). At this point, the Arizona native looks like such a slam dunk for induction that anything short of that – be it as a result of injury or an unimaginable regression – would be catastrophic.

John Tavares

The induction of Roenick demonstrated the NHL’s willingness to recognize prolonged, consistent greatness regardless of individual or team honours. That is good news for John Tavares and his Hall chances.

On stats alone, Tavares has – or is poised to – hit all the right benchmarks. He reached 1,000 career points last season and 1,000 career games in the season before that. The 34-year-old needs 36 goals for 500 on his career, which may not come this season but he should certainly hit the milestone at some point. Conversely, though, he still has yet to pick up any individual awards over 16 seasons with the Maple Leafs and New York Islanders, nor has he even sniffed the Stanley Cup (he hasn’t advanced past the second round).

There was a time when having only the numbers without the hardware wouldn’t be sufficient for Hall inclusion – after all, half the league was putting up similarly stellar numbers in the 1980s. Nowadays, though, the inductions of players like Roenick and Pierre Turgeon have opened the doors – and Tavares was probably a better player than either of them.

Max Pacioretty

As the currently injured Max Pacioretty enters what is probably the final stages of a decorated, 17-year career, it appears likely that the 35-year-old won’t quite have a strong enough resume for induction. On the plus side, the six-time 30-goal scorer has established himself as a well-respected leader and offensive force across stops in Montreal, Vegas, Washington and now in Toronto.

Unfortunately, an inability to stay healthy robbed Pacioretty of many opportunities to further solidify his Hall of Fame case. While fellow 2007 draftees like Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn have long since exceeded the 1,000-game plateau, the Connecticut native remains stuck at 915 in his career. If you remove his 13 games as a Maple Leaf, he still has only averaged 56 games per season over the course of his career.

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William Nylander & Mitch Marner

Let’s put both William Nylander and Mitch Marner under the shared category of “too early to tell”. While Matthews would have to flame out in spectacular fashion to not eventually get the call to the Hall at this point, Nylander and Marner still have some work to do in continuing and possibly building on the productivity from their first decade in the league.

Auston Matthews John Tavares Mitch Marner William Nylander Morgan Rielly Toronto Maple Leafs
Who will one day be Hall of Fame-bound? (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)

At the moment, it could certainly be argued that Marner has a leg up. A year and four days younger, he has managed 113 more points in 27 fewer games. It is, however, Nylander who seems to be quickly developing into a more potent goal-scoring force, netting 40 in each of the past two seasons and collecting 114 over the past three. If Marner can keep flirting with 100 points for the foreseeable future and Nylander can produce more 40-goal seasons, it won’t be long before the two career Maple Leafs are garnering Hall of Fame buzz. Of course, more team success would certainly help as well.

Given the high-end talent leading the way and the well-respected veterans strengthening the core, it seems highly probable that current Maple Leafs fans are getting to watch future Hall of Famers. But just as individual success breeds team success, the reverse is true too. For every Cup-less Roenick in the Hall, there are plenty more legends like Datsyuk, a two-time winner. So just as the 2025 Hall of Fame class could include Cup winners like Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith and Ryan Getzlaf, a number of Leafs could greatly improve their Hall chances by winning it all. Simple enough, right?

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