The Steve Dangle Podcast - Picking the Toronto Maple Leafs 2010s All-Decade Team

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake give their picks for the Toronto Maple Leafs 2010s All-Decade Team. Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S-S-D-P-P, the Steve Dangle Podcast, with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! Alright, so here's the thing. It's the end of the decade, and what we want to do is go through what you think your all-decade Leafs team is. I'm talking four lines, three lines of D, and two goaltenders. So, shall we go through first line, second line, third line? We good with that? Sure. All right.

Jesse, give us your first line first. Left wing. Started on the all-decade Toronto Maple Leafs. James Van Riemsdyk. Centered by John Tavares. Right wing. Phil Kessel. Nice.

Very good line. Take that. Compelling. Very good line. What you got, Steven? I had slightly different. I have JVR with Matthews and Phil Kessel. We spent the whole time begging for Phil Kessel to be put with the number one center.

There you go. And JT isn't? No. Shut up. I'm going to say. He's not the one I chose. Okay, so now I think if you're going to put a team together, Tavares is actually the better fit. Because my pick is JVR, Matthews, Kessel.

Tavares is the better fit between JVR and Kessel. because he's a disher, right? He throws the puck really good. He's got great instincts. But him and JVR are the in front of the net guys. Yes, they are. So what are you arguing? I'm arguing that Matthews,

the reason I put him in that spot is because Matthews played more games, scored more goals, had more of an effect on the franchise's future at the beginning than John Tavares did over the course of the decade. And that is why I took him. Because really, it's like,

you can't pick a wrong center. Yeah. So, and isn't it funny that we're talking about two franchise centers and having to pick between one or two of them when at the beginning of the decade and the beginning of the show, Joey Crabb.

All right, line two, Jesse, go. Line two, Kuhlman, Matthews Marner. Kuhlman? Kuhlman, Matthews? I went through the left wings in the last 10 years, and it's not a deep core. But Kuhlman, I think just in terms of longevity, what he meant to the Leafs in that little bit,

throw him there. And then obviously Marner, probably the... He hasn't surpassed Phil Kessel just because he hasn't been here as long. But I'd say the second best right winger we've had in the last 10 years. I am going to go with chemistry. And I'm going to make my whole second line behind JVR Matthews Kessel, Hyman, Tavares, Marner. Wow.

You know what, man? I look back through some of the left wingers the Leafs have had. Not great, Bob. Not great. Not great. And Zach Hyman, homegrown product. They got him in a wicked deal. He's gritty.

Scores goals. He does everything you want him to do, basically. So I'm putting him there, and you can shut your face. I'm not saying he's the second best. I'm just going with chemistry because I'm a really smart guy. I'm not doing that. I'm going with the second best, and the second best is William Nylander. On the left?

They listed him as left on the site. He's a right winger. That is wrong. He's a right winger. How dare they? He's a right winger. You can't cheat. He's a center.

He's more of a center than he is a left winger. Is he a right winger? Oh, he's a left winger now. That's the problem. What website? Well, reference had him at... Left wing? Left wing.

Because he's left wing right now. So he's left wing. He can switch teams. Yeah, it's all right. We'll let it slide. We're not going to nitpick it. If it was Kavanaugh on his other wing, I could be like, yeah, the argument could be that he's not. Or if you put Matthews on a wing, I'd fight you.

Yeah, for sure. Nylander can flip wings and make it work. So I put Nylander, Tavares, Marner. Nylander, Tavares, Marner. And again, you might say, Mitch Marner's a better player than Phil Kessel. Okay, sure, but show me the receipts. Phil Kessel has two cups Phil Kessel has a consmith

Phil Kessel has a bunch of things And Marner may get all those things Check, check, check Not yet And he did not do as much for the Leafs In this decade As Kessel did Period

100% Yet Yet Next decade 2020 He'll be up there Alright, line three I debated with myself a long time

About whether I should have Hyman On that second line Or that third line But it's Hyman, Kadri, Nylander Zach Hyman If you look at Zach Hyman's low run So far with the Leafs It's so impressive

It is. Like, you don't realize how long he's actually been here and how well he's played. So, yeah, definitely deserves to be in the all-decade team. And then Kadri, I think is my easy pick. It's between kind of him and Bozak, but, like, whatever. Kadri gets that third line. Nylander, obviously, going to be a great sleep of all time.

Continue. I am going to go with, I have the line for a second. Nazem Kadri is my third line center. On his right is William Nylander. On his left, Clark MacArthur. That's a good one. This is who I have. An extraordinarily underrated Leaf for the whole time he was a Leaf,

and they let him walk for nothing for no good effing reason. Like Grabowski. Like Grabowski. Now, I could not find room for Grabowski on my team, but I tried. He's a centerman, or he was with the Leafs, but he's a center left wing. So you could have made the argument. I had to go with somebody else on my fourth line for that, but we're on the third line, so I'm going Hyman, Kadri, Kapanen.

Kapanen, really? If you look at what Kapanen has done, and he has played games every season since 15-16, so that's almost half a decade. If you look at what he's offered and brought in the time that he's been given, you know, he scored a big playoff goal from Brian Boyle in overtime. Remember that when he was a fourth line? Who had the second assist on that? No, I have no idea.

Matt Martin. Matt Martin. Who would remember that? Probably started in the corner with Matt Martin. Probably Thomas Caverly from the grave, because he was the king of the secondary assists. Hyman, Kadri, Kapanen. Kadri was easy for me. It was Qadri or Bozak, but Qadri's the easier guy to me because I think he's a better player.

And I think he's a homegrown guy, too. From here, drafted here, I would have gone him. I think Kapanen has got such a special skill set, and he's contributed for a long time. I'm going with him. Fourth line. Fourth line. My left wing, Joffrey Lupo, centered by Tyler Bozak. Right wing, Leo Komarov.

Oh! Great. Uncle Leo deserves respect. He does. Put that respect on Uncle Leo's name. The Leafs all-star representative one year. Yes. And Joffrey Lupo, if you walk into any real sports from 2016 to 2018, you'll find his jersey for $10.

They're still there. They're still there. 2020. They'll be there until 2025. So respect Joffrey Lupo as well. Adam, I want you to go. Okay. I have my fourth line, but I want you to go.

I have Lupo, Bozak, and Connor Brown. Okay. Very good. Now, the reason I took Lupo's easy, you know, if it were not for injuries, Joffrey Lupo was pretty impressive. He scored in, what was it, 66 points in 62 games. Yeah, and then they signed him to that contract. Great.

Yeah. One of my lasting memories of 2013 when they finally made the playoffs is that game against Ottawa. I think he scored the, it was like the fourth goal of that game when everyone knew it was iced, and all the Leafs fans in that building are going nuts. And I think it was Bob Cole calling that game goals and the Leafs are going to the playoffs.

It was so good as Lupo loses his mind. Yeah, and Lupo, that Lupo-Caudry-Fratten line, I want to say, whatever that third line was in the playoffs, that was a great line. Let's not forget about there was Lynn Sanity going on in New York at that time, but I remember Frat Sanity when he had like 13 points in 10 games. He was hot as a pistol and then he hit the damn post in Game 7.

Yep, frat sanity. And the reason I took Connor Brown is that we would never be the same if Connor Brown doesn't score that goal against Pittsburgh to have the Leafs clinch the playoff. I didn't think he played here long enough. That was my only debate. He was here since 15-16. But then it was two years, right?

Yeah, I guess. It was two full years. Yeah, fair. I'm changing my answer mid-stream here because I want my fourth line, I wanted my fourth line to be a line that defined the Leafs because this is, I already did my all-decade team for sports and it was slightly different. You had to go with guys who defined it.

So I'm going to go with, I'm going to change my answer. I was going to put, I'm not kidding, Jay McClement as my fourth line center. I am instead going to go with Tyler Bozak because if we're going to go With guys who define the team You cannot have this conversation Without Tyler Bozak So Changing up

A real life line Ever so slightly My center is going to be Tyler Bozak Between Fraser McLaren And Colton Orr Yeah

Good for you To find an era That's for sure They absolutely did And I still remember Clear as day That game against Montreal It's like

Five to nothing Or something And they just send out Colton Orr and Fraser McLaren To literally beat up The whole team Oh, my God. Tyler Bozak, Settering, Fraser McLaren, and Colton Orr.

You want the defense pairings? Let's go. FNUF, Riley, Caberle, Gardner, Hainsey, Polak. Wow. Very interesting. Compelling. If you don't have FNUF in your top pairing, you're disrespecting the Leafs. Screw you.

Captain came here, didn't play that well, but he was the captain who was leader of this team during the worst times of this last decade. Riley, best defenseman of the last decade, easily. Caberle, beginning of this era, but he was there. He played for one year. He still had 38 points in that one year. I'm counting, I'm throwing in there, Jake Gardner, and no one took more shit than Jake Gardner.

God bless him. Deserved. Hainsey and Polak is my Hainsey and Polak line. Those guys, we didn't want them, we never want to see the ice, but they played a combined half the decade for this team, and so many minutes. So many minutes for Ron Hainsey. There was a lot of minutes of frustration watching those two

So they deserve to be on a line together If you're defining this last 10 years I got Riley Hainsey As my top pair Who played the right side More than Ron Hainsey Over the past decade And who's let Morgan Riley be Morgan Riley

And who's let Morgan Riley be Morgan Riley Which is why my second pair Is Jake Gardner, Roman Polak There you go And for those of you who are cringing real hard I want to remind you, those two pairings were on the Leafs at the same time for two years. It was tough. And then the third pair.

And we're sad as they deserve it. My third pair, again, we're going to go with guys who defined the decade. One of my favorite pairs the Leafs have ever busted out in their galaxy brain bullshit of thinking this might be a good idea. FNUF on the left, Mike Koska on the right. Oh, wow. Mike Koska. Mike, Thor, Koska, Mike, Amazing Marley, and they've actually been playing hockey while the lockout's been going on, so why don't we have him on the first pair with Dion Phaneuf

on opening night, Koska. Yeah, because Keith Hawley couldn't earn it. Right. Man, he's our seventh defenseman. It's been that kind of decade. So I'm going Phaneuf, Koska. Okay, well, I also had Riley Hainsey as my top pair. I had Gardner-Coverley as my second pair.

And my third pair is Phaneuf-Franzen. Cody Franzen. Cody Franzen's a good one. That's a very good one. I looked it up this week. Better than Mike Hoskins. 115 points is a leaf. Oh, wow.

They were going to sign him to a five-year, $25 million deal, and he turned it down. Two goals in Game 7. Kill me. I know. Did he score two goals in Game 7? He scored the first two. Wow. I don't remember that.

Goalies. This one. In typical Cody Franzen fashion, it was his fault that Boston scored the one in the 2-1 game. I think we're going to get... I think we're going to... I think we're all going to agree on this one. Anderson Reimer. Oh, we're doing two goalies.

Yeah, you got a backup. I also got Gabrowski in the press box. Yeah, me too. Yeah, yeah. So you got... I got Anderson Reimer. Okay. Tell me I'm wrong.

Anderson Reimer. Reimer Anderson. Screw you. I want to lose first and then come back later. We're going to learn the hard way. That's by losing with Reimer. With the exception of Anderson's first month, we the whole time have just been like,

Yeah, no, he's good. He's the best. He's the best. What do you mean? But Reimer dragged... He was the only reason they made the playoffs in 2013. The only one. You can say that about Anderson.

And I just feel like Anderson has not been talked about nearly as much as Reimer was. There wasn't as much debate. There wasn't... You shut your face. There wasn't the debate going on. Oh, yeah? And Reimer is letting you all know in the most polite way he possibly can that he is still the real deal.

If we were just going goalies who generated conversations over the last decade, it'd be Reimer McElhaney. It'd be Reimer McElhaney! It'd be the most random in the world, Jesse Blank! My argument's not who's the best, it's just who we talked about. And who's the best. Has Anderson ever received a heart vote? Reimer did.

He received one. Exactly one. In 2013. From Jesse Spector, who is brave. Reimer Anderson. Hey, man, I was looking through some pretty scary goalies throughout the thing. I also remember Alexey Marchenko. That was a guy.

Oh, my God. Anyway, throwing that out there. So that is our All-Decade Teams. Thanks so much for watching, and we'll have more clips coming up. S-T-E-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle, at Adam W-Y-L-D-E

and at Jesse Blake. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness. Connection complete.