Keon returns to Toronto as 1967 remembered

Sixteen members of the 1967 Maple Leafs Stanley Cup winning team were honoured in a pre-game ceremony on Saturday as Toronto hosted the Edmonton Oilers. The loudest ovation of the evening was reserved for Dave Keon, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner from that year who ended a three-decade-long estrangement from Leafs functions.

The former Leaf captain, who departed the Toronto organization for the WHA in 1975, after an acrimonious relationship with then-owner Harold Ballard, credits the team’s current general manager for arranging the centre-ice presentation that was stage before 19,599 appreciative fans at the Air Canada Centre. “John Ferguson did a great job in getting us all here. Tonight was a very good experience.

“I wouldn’t say it was a no-brainer (to accept the invitation), but I thought about it, and I thought it would be something I should do.”

Keon was quick to caution Toronto fans against believing that all of the fences have been mended between him and the Leafs organization that he had avoided for over thirty years prior to Saturday night.

“This is one night. One weekend. Let’s leave it at that.”

A four-time Cup-winner with the Leafs who sits in third-place among all-time club points leaders, Keon will not participate in a 40th anniversary dinner being held in honour of the “over the hill gang” that captured the Stanley Cup in Canada’s centennial year. In fact Keon has avoided nearly all Leafs alumni events held since leaving for the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints eight years after that last Toronto Cup victory.

Keon was asked in an interview with Hockey Night In Canada’s Scott Morrison about his refusal to participate in the ceremony for the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens in 1999. The response was straightforward.

“I don’t do form letters.”

Fans may recall that then-Leafs president Ken Dryden had invited all alumni to attend the closing of MLG by way of an impersonal, generic letter. Keon stated in his interview with Morrison that he had initially planned to accept the invitation, but the form letter was the reason for his decision to decline.

Meanwhile there appear to be no immediate plans to retire Keon’s number 14 jersey, in accordance with the Leafs policy of leaving all numbers in circulation unless a player’s career ends prematurely due to unforeseen circumstances. However the current bearer of the legendary number, forward Matt Stajan, wouldn’t hesitate to give way, if asked.

“He’s one of the best Leafs ever to wear the jersey,” said Stajan of Keon. “If they felt like they want to retire the number, I’d be more than happy to change my number.”

Ron Ellis, who won the Stanley Cup in his third season as a member of the 1967 team agrees with Keon, in disagreement of the club’s refusal to retire numbers. “I think there’s such a tradition here in Toronto that they should retire the sweaters, like the Canadiens have,” said Ellis, who played his entire 1,034-game NHL career with the Leafs. “If the Canadiens can do it, why can’t we?

“I just feel when a player has played like Davey has, or a Mahovlich, or a Sittler, and their sweater is not retired and then a young fellow comes along and wears that number – that’s not taking anything away from the player that wears that number - but I think it takes a little something away from the number.”

At age 66, Keon continues his steadfast philosophy of not being swayed by the sentimentality expressed by either his former teammates, or the fans of Toronto. “I can’t live on people’s expectations. I have my own life to live.”

A 1967 Leafs Tribute dinner is scheduled for March 22 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Full information on is available at 1967LeafsDinner.com