Tim Horton played his first 20 Seasons in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where his physical strength and toughness set him apart from the other Defenseman.

Horton debuted in 1950 and was a Second Team All-Star in 1952-53.  He could drop the gloves and intimidate when needed, though he was not a player who drew penalties, often considering his physical style of play.  Horton had a phenomenal decade in the 1960s, where he anchored Toronto to four Stanley Cups, was a First Team All-Star twice, and a Second Team All-Star three times.  Horton finished in the top-four in Norris voting six times and was the runner-up twice. 

In 13 different years in Toronto, Horton was in the top ten in Defensive Point Shares, and he led the league in that advanced metric twice (1953-54 & 1962-63).  As of this writing, he is seventh all-time in DPS.

Horton was traded to the New York Rangers in 1970, and he later played for Pittsburgh and Buffalo, where his career ended following his death from a car accident.  He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1977, with the Leafs honoring him in 1995.  His number #7, which he had sometime after fellow honoree, King Clancy, was officially retired in 2016

Turk Broda played his entire NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and with all due respect to everyone else who wore the blue and white in between the pipes, it is Broda who is the most important. 

Broda’s professional career began with the Detroit Olympics in the minor leagues, but his path to the NHL did not lead him to stay in the Motor City.  The Olympics sold his contract to his hometown Maple Leafs, and he would become Toronto’s starting Goalie going into the 1936-37 season.

The Torontonian proved to be a top Goalie, and in the 1940-41 season, Broda won his first Vezina and would lead the Maple Leafs to a Stanley Cup win the year after.  It was a special championship in sports, as the Maple Leafs became the first team to overcome a 3-0 Finals deficit to win the title.  Broda’s work on the ice took a two-and-a-half-year detour due to World War II, but he returned better than ever.

Broda led Toronto to four Stanley Cups (1947, 1948, 1949 & 1951) in five years, winning a second Vezina in 1948.  Age caught up to Broda in 1951, as he played in only 31 Games, and after appearing in only one contest in 1951-52, he retired from hockey with a career record of 304-222-102.

Broda was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967, and in 1995, his banner was hung to the ACC's rafters.   Toronto officially retired his number #1 in 2016.

If you look at the top ten that we came up with, we could make a case for any one of them as the best Toronto Maple Leaf of all time.  Not only that, when you have a team with a long history and a fervent fanbase in Toronto, you will likely find a list that has one of those men at the top.  After what felt like weeks of analysis, we settled on Syl Apps as the greatest Maple Leaf ever.

Apps was an outstanding athlete who won the Gold Medal at the 1934 British Empire Games and would later be sixth at the 1936 Olympics.  The Toronto Maple Leafs courted the multi-sport athlete to play, and he made immediate history as the first-ever Calder Trophy winner as the NHL's best rookie.  

As a rookie, Apps led the NHL in Assists and did so again in his second NHL season.  While the Center never won the Hart, from 1938-39 to 1942-43, he was either second or third in the balloting for the most coveted individual trophy in hockey.  Apps also led Toronto to a Stanley Cup win in 1942.

Apps missed two seasons when he joined the Canadian Military for World War II.   When he returned, he was still an elite player and led the Leafs to Stanley Cups in 1947 and 1948.  The ’48 Cup win would be his final game in the NHL, ending a ten-year run all with Toronto.

Amazingly, he only had 56 Penalty Minutes over his career, and as such, Apps won the Lady Byng in 1942, was the runner-up for it twice, and the second runner-up another two times.  While we concede that others could easily slide in at the top here, can anyone state emphatically that Apps shouldn't be number one?   Not emphatically.  Not a chance.   

And, yes, we think we would have written those last three sentences if we had chosen one of the other options we considered for number one.  This is how tight it was.

Apps entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, and his name was one of the first honored in the Air Canada Center in 1993.  In 2016, his number 10 (which George Armstrong also had) was officially retired by the Leafs.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Atlanta Hawks

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NBA. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in three years, and as such, there are two significant debuts, that would not be so drastic had we did these the last two years.

As always, we present our top five immediately, though nothing has changed in this upper-tier.

1. Bob Pettit

2. Dominique Wilkins

3. Cliff Hagan

4. John Drew

5. Mookie Blaylock

You can find the entire list here.

The two new entries are stars of the past few years, and led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Power Forward and four-year veteran, John Collins enters at #28, and star three-year Guard, Trae Young, debuts at #29.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.