I don’t know about other Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans, but I love learning about the team I cover. In fact, I try to learn more regularly. I’ve decided to do a regular (perhaps weekly) post about Maple Leafs’ trivia – at least during the offseason. Each week, I’ll try to cover a different topic. If you care to, send me a question and I’ll add it to the next post and acknowledge who sent it.
Related: Do You Know Your Maple Leafs’ Goalie Trivia?
In today’s post, I want to focus on the Maple Leafs’ interesting history as far as its scoring goes. See how many of these questions you can get right.
Question #1: What two current Maple Leafs’ players rank in the Top 10 in goal scoring during a single season? [Bonus points for knowing the number of goals they’ve scored. They both have totalled the same number.]
Answer: The Maple Leafs’ Top 10 single-season goal scoring is dotted with names from franchise history. However, two current Maple Leafs players have found their way into the Top 10 of all time. Those two current players are John Tavares and Auston Matthews. Both scored 47 goals: Tavares reached that mark during his first season with the team in 2018-19 and Matthews did it the next season (2019-20).
Score one point for each goal scorer and a bonus point for knowing the number of goals.
Question #2: What Maple Leafs’ player has scored more than 50 goals the most times in the Blue and White? How many times has he reached the 50-goal mark? [Bonus points for knowing what the single-season goal scoring record is (how many goals) is.]
Answer: If you look at the Maple Leafs’ player whose name is in the Top 10 of scoring the most times, you’ll find that player is Rick Vaive. His name can be found among the Top 10 single-season’s goal scorers (including ties) three times. During the 1981-82 season, Vaive’s single-season record was 54 goals. He followed up with 51 goals during the 1982-83 season and with 52 goals during the 1983-84 season.
Score one point for knowing Vaive’s name and a bonus point for knowing that his Maple Leafs’ record sits at 54 goals.
Question #3: Which Maple Leafs’ player, who went on to even more success later in his career with a team on the Canadian prairies, reached the Top 10 in single-season goal scoring two times? [You get a point for naming the player and the team where he was traded. Note that this is a bit of a trick question.]
Related: Calgary Flames’ 50-Goal Scorers
Answer: The moustached Lanny McDonald, who went on to perhaps even more success with the Calgary Flames, made the top 10 two times. He first scored 46 goals during the 1976-77 season and then scored 47 goals during the 1977-78 season. The trick part of this question was that McDonald wasn’t traded directly to the Flames. Instead, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies where he spent parts of three NHL seasons. Interestingly, McDonald scored exactly 500 goals during his career.
Score one point for knowing McDonald’s name and a bonus point for knowing that he was traded to the Rockies.
Question 4: During the entire history of the Maple Leafs’ franchise, only three different players have scored more than 50 goals during a single season. Who are they?
Answer: From Question #2, you already know that Rick Vaive made the Top 10 three times. The other two players are Dave Andreychuk (who scored 53 goals in 1993-94) and Gary Leeman (who scored 51 goals in 1989-90). This was the only time in Andreychuk’s career he scored 50 goals or more. The next season after he hit the 50-goal mark, Leeman dropped to only 17 goals. During the remainder of his NHL career, he never scored double-digit goals again.
Score one point each for each player you know.
Related: Toronto Maple Leafs | Revisiting the Wendel Clark for Mats Sundin Trade
Question 5: Which of the following three great Maple Leafs’ players never reached the Top 10 in single-season goal-scoring – Frank Mahovlich, Mats Sundin, or Wendel Clark?
Answer: Of the three great Maple Leafs players listed above, only two are listed in the Top 10 in single-season Maple Leafs goal scoring. Frank Mahovlich scored 48 goals during the 1960-61 season and Wendel Clark scored 46 goals in 1993-94. Mats Sundin, the number one Maple Leafs’ goal scorer in history who ended his career with 420 total goals, never made the Top 10 during a single-season. His highest goal-scoring totals were 41 goals in each of two seasons (1996-97 and 2001-02).
Score one point for knowing which Maple Leafs DIDN’T reach the Top 10.
Add Up Your Total Points
Total: There were a possible 11 points in this trivia test. If you scored more than 10 points, give yourself a high-five. You know your Maple Leafs’ history.
Thanks for taking the Maple Leafs’ trivia test. Don’t forget. If you enjoy trivia and have a trivia question you’d like me to include, add it to the Conversation section below.