Ranking the 5 Maple Leafs captains since 1990

Former Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf made his first visit back to Toronto on Saturday since being traded, wearing Ottawa Senators colors.

Phaneuf captained Toronto for 397 games, and the Maple Leafs are in no hurry to name his successor. So there's no better time to look back and rank Maple Leafs captains over the past generation.

5. Rob Ramage (1989-1991)

Rob Ramage was the last defenseman to captain the Maple Leafs before Phaneuf.

A four-time All-Star, Ramage took over for ... no one. Toronto was captain-less for three seasons beginning in 1986. The Maple Leafs drafted in the top 10 a remarkable 10 years in a row (1981-1990), so he was clearly a placeholder for some young talent, which never arrived.

Ramage wore the "C" for 160 games. Toronto made the playoffs once in his two-year tenure, losing in the first round in 1990.

4. Dion Phaneuf (2010-2016)

There's one word to describe Phaneuf's time as Maple Leafs captain: failure.

That's not all on the defenseman, though, who captained Toronto from 2010 until February 2016. He never had enough help, and was far too often asked to do far too much.

Phaneuf played over 25 minutes a night against the opposition's best players in his first three seasons with the "C," and only in one season during his time in Toronto did he hit the 40-point mark.

The Maple Leafs suffered through some monumental collapses while Phaneuf was captain, and, for better or worse, he'll be remembered as the leader of a team that blew a 4-1 lead to the Boston Bruins in the third period of Game 7 in their first-round playoff series in 2013.

The bad times far outweighed the good. That Toronto was able to get out from Phaneuf's massive contract - which the club of course signed him to - without retaining salary was seen as a massive win for the Maple Leafs.

3. Doug Gilmour (1994-1997)

If there was anyone who could take over for Wendel Clark, it was Doug Gilmour.

Gilmour donned the "C" during the lockout-shortened 1995 season, after Clark was traded for Mats Sundin, in one of the most highly discussed transactions in Toronto hockey history.

Acquired in 1991, Gilmour put together the finest single season in Maple Leafs history in 1992-93, scoring 32 times and adding 95 assists. He won the Selke Trophy and finished second to some guy named Mario Lemieux for the Hart Trophy. He followed that performance up with a 111-point 1993-94, and was the best player on Maple Leafs teams that went deep into the playoffs. Clark was traded because Gilmour was a Maple Leaf, because Gilmour could take the "C."

Gilmour was captain for three seasons, and was another heart-and-soul player easy to fall for. Toronto made the playoffs twice in his time as captain, losing in the first round both times. After Burns was banished, Gilmour wasn't far behind. He asked for a trade, his wish granted in 1997.

In the grand scheme of things, Gilmour wasn't in Toronto long, wasn't a Maple Leaf for a very long time. But few have made more of an impact on the Toronto sports scene.

2. Wendel Clark (1991-1994)

Wendel Clark drinks for free in Toronto.

The first overall pick in 1985 was the type of hockey player the city adores: passionate, tough, reckless, full of emotion, who always gave it everything he had.

Clark took the captaincy from Ramage, in 1991, and was the face of a team that was crawling out of the darkness that was the Harold Ballard era. Often, Clark was the only player worth watching at Maple Leaf Gardens. Injuries limited him to only 43 games in his first season as captain, but the two seasons that followed are ones Maple Leafs supporters of a certain generation still talk about.

The 1992-93 season, the first with Pat Burns behind the bench, saw Toronto win 44 games and pull off an improbable and incredible seven-game upset of the Detroit Red Wings in the first round, after going down 2-0 in the series. Toronto would win another seven-game series against the St. Louis Blues, before falling to Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings in the conference finals.

Clark will forever be remembered for his pounding of Marty McSorley after the defender took out Gilmour, and for his game-tying goal in Game 6 of the L.A. series, sending the game to overtime. Gretzky got away with a high-stick in the extra frame, before scoring the winner to push the series to seven.

Clark captained Toronto to another conference finals appearance in 1994, the team winning its first 10 games of the regular season in 1993. While injuries limited Clark to only 173 games as captain, he wore the "C" when the Maple Leafs came back into the light.

1. Mats Sundin (1997-2008)

Only one of the five captains mentioned here has a statue outside the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto: Mats Sundin. He is forever.

Acquired for Clark, Sundin was a lightning rod of criticism in his early Toronto years, never physical enough, never showing enough emotion. He wasn't Clark. He wasn't Gilmour. As if that was somehow his fault. But the soft-spoken Swede let his play on the ice do the talking, and once Gilmour was traded, and the Maple Leafs became Sundin's team, it was clear No. 13 would wear the "C" - and do it justice.

And he did. Sundin's numbers speak for themselves. He's the Maple Leafs' all-time leader in goals and points. In power-play goals, shorthanded goals, game-winning goals, and overtime goals. After being named captain in 1997, Toronto went on a competitive six-season run beginning in 1999, making two conference finals.

Sundin was the first non-Canadian captain the Maple Leafs ever had. He had Don Cherry and a rabid Clark- and Gilmour-loving town ready to pounce on him at every opportunity, but he handled the pressure with class. He produced in the dead-puck era with little talent (no offense, Jonas Hoglund) around him. He won. And he did it with the respect of his teammates and coaches, who called him one of the greatest leaders the Maple Leafs ever had.

Sundin captained the Maple Leafs for 10 seasons. He gave Toronto the best years of his life, his prime. And he did it with aplomb, never shying away from the media, his reputation in the city and the community sublime. Sundin was criminally underappreciated as a Maple Leaf, as a captain, and his legacy has only become stronger in the years since his departure, his absence leaving a massive void down the middle and in the Toronto locker room. Many in Toronto didn't know what the Maple Leafs had in Sundin, until he was gone.

The Maple Leafs haven't had a No. 1 center in the years since Sundin left. With all due respect to Phaneuf, you could argue Toronto is still looking for the right man to wear the "C" since No. 13 left, too.

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