Les Kozak

Les Kozak was a solid prospect of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Born in Dauphin, Manitoba on October 28, 1940, Kozak played his junior hockey with the famous St. Michael's Majors of the OHA for 3 seasons. In that time, the 6' 185lb left winger scored 37 goals and 77 points in 123 games. A good skater and clean player, the Leafs were impressed enough to sign him knowing that he would need time to develop first at the minor league level.

A very religious man, Kozak actually quit hockey for 1 year at the age of 20. He would have turned pro and gone to the Leafs training camp, but instead he entered the Seminary. He missed the entired 1960-61 season while studying to become a priest.

Kozak returned to hockey the following year. He appeared in 12 games with the Leafs and even scored 1 goal, but spent most of his time with the AHL's Rochester Americans developing his game. However his career came to a tragic end on February 23, 1962. Playing against Providence, Kozak suffered a severe head injury. He was carried off the ice and never played competitive hockey ever again.

It is assumed Les Kozak continued persuing his religious beliefs following his hockey days.

Kozak certainly isn't the only religious man to play in the NHL. In fact an ordained minister with ties to the Toronto Maple Leafs played one game in 1943. George Abbott doubled his religious duties as the Leafs practice goaltender. When the Boston Bruins came to town in November of 1943, their goalie, Bert Gardiner, became violently ill and couldn't partipate in the game. As teams didn't carry backup goalies at the time, the Leafs allowed the Bruins to use their practice goalie for the game.

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Scott Thornton

One player I watched come from junior hockey and into the NHL was Scott Thornton. The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted the Belleville Bulls hulking center 3rd overall in 1989.

The reason? At about that time I had a huge man-crush on Calgary's Joel Otto. A physically dominant, extraordinary defensive center with incredible size and great faceoff ability. Every team wanted Otto. And, I believed, Toronto had drafted the next one when the draft Thornton ahead Stu Barnes and Bill Guerin.

Thornton went on to become a bit of a poor-man's Otto rather than the next dominant defender. He was outstanding on faceoffs. He played with a different variety of toughness - he was never chippy or cheap. He was a real solid player, though prone to both injuries and bad penalties.

Though he had decent skating ability - strong and balanced - he was not fast. He was smart positionally on the defensive side. Offensively he never really was a threat, except for one season in San Jose where he played a lot of left wing alongside his superstar cousin, Joe Thornton. Many people would expect more offensive production from a 3rd overall draft pick - one who was traded as a key part of the trade to Edmonton for Grant Fuhr. But I certainly would not consider him a disappointment.

In fact, even though he was a favorite of mine, even I was actually quite surprised to realize he survived parts of 17 NHL season, totalling nearly 1000 regular season games. He spent a long time in obscurity on 4th lines in Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Dallas, San Jose and Los Angeles. It all added up to a very decent National Hockey League career.

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Daniel Marois

For a couple of seasons, Daniel Marois was the talk of Toronto. Along with fellow Frenchman Vincent Damphousse, the duo were taking the NHL by storm. The Leafs, who also had another great tandem in Ed Olczyk and Gary Leeman, were one of the more exciting offensive teams. Unfortunately the team's chemistry fell apart. Marois and Damphousse were take off the same line and later Damphousse, who has made a career out of making players around him better, was traded away. Marois was never able to regain his status as a top sniper in the game.

Marois relied on his good hockey sense to become a top goal scorer. He broke into the league in 1988-89 and scored 31 goals as a rookie. The following year he moved up to 39 goals. Marois was one dimensional in the sense that he was a goal scorer. He had terrific eye-hand coordination and a quick release, and an uncanny knack to get open at the right time. He was a very good skater and a powerplay specialist.

Damphousse, and center iceman Tom Fergus, were solid two way players who specialized in setting up plays, so Marois was a good fit on that line. However he had his shortcomings - most notably his lack of strength and a non-existent defensive game. He also lacked the vision set up plays to his linemates.

After those back to back 30 plus goal seasons, Marois found himself losing confidence in his game after a season of injuries decimated the Leafs lineup. Damphousse was moved to a new line while Fergus played in only 14 games due to a groin injury. He was reduced to 21 goals and just 9 assists. The following year he scored just 15 times before being traded to the New York Islanders.

The move out of Toronto was just what Marois needed to get his career back on track, but fate would not allow that. Serious back problems began plaguing Marois for the rest of his career. He struggled with the Islanders, and later with the Boston Bruins and briefly with the Dallas Stars. He spent considerable time in the minor leagues and on the injury list as well.

By 1997 Marois had left North America and became a top import in various European leagues

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Billy Harris

Billy Harris was a local kid who grew up idolizing the Leafs He was a star hockey player himself, coming up through the Marlies system, winning the Memorial Cup in 1954-55. He was part of an influx of young talent that would join the Leafs in the late 1950s who would help return the Leafs to glory, winning 4 Stanley Cups in the 1960s. Harris was a part of the first three.

Tall and thin, "Hinky" was a good skater and stickhandler, a real heady player. Early on he was counted on in an offensive role, but by the end of 1950s he would become a 3rd line utility player. Part of this was because he was a bit of a whipping boy for coach Punch Imlach. But the biggest reason was the incredible depth at center ice the Leafs enjoyed by the 1960s - Dave Keon and Red Kelly were undeniably the team's top two centers.

His ice time dwindled as the 1960s progressed, so he was moved from Toronto and started bouncing around the league  a bit. He went on to play briefly with the Canadian national team after his NHL days were done. This exposed him to international hockey and from there, he spent a year in Sweden coaching their national team, where he got a real appreciation of the European game, especially the Soviets. He was one of the few Canadians who were cautioning Canada's expectations when the NHL's pros first played the Soviets at the 1972 Summit Series.

Harris, who coached a number of WHA teams including the Toronto Toros, was selected to run the bench for the 1974 Summit Series, a WHA copycat tournament of the original.

Harris scored 134 goals and 229 assists in 769 NHL games with Toronto, Detroit, Oakland and Pittsburgh during a 14-year NHL career from 1956-69.

Harris, a very active member of the Leafs alumni association in later years, wrote a wonderful book - a mixture of Leafs history and personal autobiography, in 1989. The Glory Years: Memories of a Decade 1955-1965 is just a wonderful inside recollection of an amazing team with some amazing players.

Billy Harris died of leukemia in 2001. He was just 66 years old.

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