The Best Player in the entire history of the Toronto Maple Leafs is a study in irony.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are supposedly located in the centre of the hockey universe, and play in the city that has probably produced the most NHL players of any city in the world. It is then quite the hilarious coincidence that their best player of all-time is a Mexican-American from Arizona, a place that has produced (at least as far as I know) only one professional hockey player.
With apologies to Syl Apps, Ted Kennedy, Johnny Bower, Frank Mahovlich, Turk Broda, George Armstrong, Ace Baily, Charlie Conachar, Red Kelly, Ron Ellis, Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming, Rick Vaive, Doug Gilmour, Wendal Clark, Mats Sundin, Phil Kessel, Lonny Bohonos and Mitch Marner, there is no contest – Matthews is the best player to ever put on the Leafs jersey.