33 years ago, almost to the day, the Leafs drafted and developed their last star goalie
The Toronto Maple Leafs' front office has often been heavily criticized for an inability to draft and develop goaltenders in recent years. How long has it been? Well, let's put it this way. "The Cat" left Toronto in 1999 and retired in 2004. Not since 1990 have the Leafs drafted and developed a goaltender into a true number one. As coincidence would have it, it was 33 years ago yesterday when the Leafs drafted Felix Potvin 31st overall.
With only 21 teams in the league at the time, the Potvin draft pick was actually a mid-second rounder. Potvin was the third highest goaltender taken in the draft behind Trevor Kidd (drafted 11th overall by Calgary) and Martin Brodeur (drafted 20th overall by New Jersey).
After being drafted, Potvin spent one more year in junior for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Potvin also represented Canada in the 1991 World Junior Championship tournament, playing in a back up roll to Trevor Kidd, helping Canada win gold.
During the 1992-93 season, Potvin was able to steal the number one goaltending job in Toronto from veteran goaltender Grant Fuhr. This allowed the Buds to trade the established Fuhr, along with a fifth round draft pick, to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a first round pick (Kenny Jonsson), goaltender Darren Puppa and winger Dave Andreychuk, an absolute haul for the Maple Leafs. Potvin would go on to back-stop the Leafs for parts of 8 seasons, where he helped the team make it to the conference finals twice, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in 1993, and the Vancouver Canucks in 1994.
While Potvin was certainly known for providing the Leafs with great goaltending, he may be most remembered for the time when he went toe-to-toe with Philadelphia Flyer netminder Ron Hextall. Hextall was known as one of the toughest goaltenders of his time, but as Leaf fans will remember, Potvin more than stood his own.
After missing the playoffs in two consecutive seasons (1996-97 & 1997-98), the Leafs signed free agent goaltender Curtis Joseph, which ultimately led to Potvin being traded. Potvin struggled to find his game for a few years until he landed in Los Angeles. His stellar play helped an unlikely Kings team make the playoffs in 2001 & 2002. But after a disappointing 2002-03 season, Potvin was not resigned by the Kings. After a stop in Boston for the 2003-04 season, Potvin decided to retire from the NHL after the 2004-05 season was cancelled. Potvin was in talks with the Atlanta Thrashers for the following year, but did not have equipment that conformed to the new league rules, and elected to retire.
"The Cat" played 635 games in the NHL, posting 266 wins and a career 0.905 save percentage playing for a total of five different teams. His iconic helmet is also recognized to this day as one of the best goalie masks of all time. Who didn't love the Felix era in Toronto?!
Thankfully, in recent years, the Leafs have put a strong emphasis on adding some quality goaltending prospects through the draft. Former AGM Mark Hunter plucked Joseph Woll in the 3rd round in 2016 and Kyle Dubas snagged a trio of goaltenders in Artur Akhtyamov (2020), Vyacheslav Peksa (2021) and Dennis Hildeby (2022) as well. The Woll dart appears to have hit as far as being an NHL-caliber goalie, but we don't yet know what he'll be in his prime years and how high he can ascend. Will he reach Potvin-levels of success in Toronto? Maybe, maybe not. But the early returns are encouraging so far.
| POLL | ||
18 JUIN | 343 ANSWERS 33 years ago, almost to the day, the Leafs drafted and developed their last star goalie Will Joseph Woll become the next star goalie that the Leafs actually drafted and developed? | ||
| Yes | 299 | 87.2 % |
| No | 44 | 12.8 % |
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