Playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs is an honour that most players around the NHL acknowledge even if they never play for the team. The ones who do, understand that Cup drought and lack of recent playoff success aside, putting on that jersey is something that less than 1% of hockey players have the ability to do. And if you’re originally from Toronto or the surrounding area, it comes with that much more of a chip on your shoulder.
It’s a big reason why fans were so stoked when the Maple Leafs drafted Mitch Marner in 2015. The Maple Leafs hadn’t drafted and developed a star since Wendel Clark, and the fact that Marner hailed from a suburb of Toronto and grew up a Leafs fan inspired lots of confidence that he would play with that extra edge knowing he was fulfilling a childhood dream. Regardless of how the team has performed since he was drafted, players who hail from the Greater Toronto area always attract a few extra headlines.
One player who hailed from nearby Scarborough and put together a nice NHL career is Anson Carter. Originally drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in 1992, Carter never played a game for the Nordiques but went on to play 674 NHL games with eight different teams. Toronto wasn’t one of those teams, and when Carter joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take, he shed some light on why he never suited up for the Maple Leafs.
“The Maple Leafs did not want to have local guys play in Toronto…”
Anson Carter on why he never played for his hometown team.@thegoldenmuzzy|@Jay_D_Rosehill
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“I tried to get to Toronto several times, and the one time I came close was when John Ferguson Jr was the GM, I tried pretty hard to come to Toronto,” Carter told Leafs Morning Take on Wednesday. “I think they ended up signing the Big E [Eric Lindros] instead and I went to Vancouver. But, for years, the Maple Leafs did not want to have local guys play in Toronto. I think there was that internal fear that if there was any success of a local kid who played for the Leafs, that he would become bigger than the team.”
Considering the hometown heroes historic star figures in other starts have become, such as Ohio’s LeBron James for the Cleveland Cavaliers or Manhattan’s Lou Gehrig for the New York Yankees, it’s funny to imagine a world where a homegrown star playing for his hometown team could be seen as a negative. Carter went on to praise the aforementioned Marner, who despite the lack of playoff success, has formed into one of the most productive Maple Leafs of all time.
“That’s why I commend a guy like Mitch Marner who grew up a Leafs fan, he’s playing for the Leafs and playing well there,” Carter continued. “I know there’s a habit of Toronto fans kind of eating their young there, and when he made that comment about getting treated like gods, I don’t think he meant that in a negative way. He was a Leaf fan as a kid and he saw them as gods.”
The comment Marner made that Carter is referring to was at last season’s end-of-year media availability. Marner was asked about what it meant to play for the Maple Leafs and said that the amount fans care about the team and the players is unlike anywhere else, although some fans took the comment differently. To be fair, it probably didn’t help that the fans were still recovering from yet another early playoff exit.
“It means the world. Obviously, we’re looked upon as gods here to be honest,” Marner said last season. “Something that you really appreciate and the love you get here from this fan base and the tension is unlike any other. You saw it with the (Raptors) a couple of years ago, the love they still have for a lot of players they had to trade off this year, that’s the love that you want.”
The Maple Leafs will host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night and look to build on their impossible win over the New Jersey Devils. You can watch our full interview with Anson Carter here.
