The Toronto Maple Leafs - by Eric Zweig (Paperback)

About the Book

A complete oral history of Canada's most iconic team, compiled from interviews with some of the biggest names in hockey, then and now. Eric Zweig takes readers through the storied history of the Leafs through the eyes of their players, coaches, managers, and fans.

Book Synopsis

A complete history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as told by the players, coaches, and reporters.

On December 19, 1917, the Toronto Arenas took to the ice for the first NHL game ever played. Over the next hundred years, the franchise changed names twice, home rinks twice, and won 13 Stanley Cups on its way to becoming one of the most successful and storied franchises in NHL history.

The Toronto Maple Leafs: The Complete Oral History gives the most comprehensive record of the team from its formation to the present day. With first-hand accounts of some of the biggest names ever to play the game - Syl Apps, Darryl Sittler, Mats Sundin - as well as coaches, managers, and commentators, Eric Zweig gives readers the full insider history of Canada's most iconic team.

Review Quotes

... I am so delighted that my distant journalistic pal, Eric Zweig, has produced this magnificent, insightful, and all-encompassing oral history of the Leafs I so much loved. To put it simply - and historically - the moment I began turning these pages, I felt precisely the same thrill as when I heard Foster Hewitt shriek He Shoots! He Scores!! on a big Don Metz goal in that classic 1942 playoff comeback.
Eric Zweig wrote - and he scored!

A complete and comprehensive history of the team that is rich in detail, exhaustive in its research, and will be loved by any hockey fan, even if the Leafs are not the reader's favorite team.

A standout hockey book of Leaf fortunes and foibles with a twist. Zweig calls on numerous chroniclers of Leaf history to make this one hum. Leaf Nation will love it.

Eric Zweig captures what the Toronto Maple Leafs have meant to many hockey fans since their inception. I had particular interest in the decades following their 1967 Stanley Cup victory, and Eric captures the ups and downs of the team for all fans of hockey. I particularly enjoyed reading of the present state of the Maple Leafs and how Eric has detailed the rebirth and future of this franchise.

Eric Zweig has bled blue and white since he was seven years old. But this is far, far from just a fan's book. When you combine the abject fan with a fine historian and a writer's ear for grand storytelling, you end up with the book on the Toronto Maple Leafs, from past grandeur through years of debacle to today's future promise. A wonderful read.

Eric Zweig is acknowledged within the hockey community as one of its premier historians, and he unequivocally proves why he has few equals in his field with this outstanding history of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Eric leaves no stone unturned with his exhaustive research in this truly entertaining but equally important book.

Not just another history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but generational work by one of hockey's premier historians, period. Supremely researched and presented, as one would expect of Eric Zweig.

The hundred-year history of the Toronto Maple Leafs is so rich in drama and event and personality - there are even some (long-ago) Stanley Cups in there, somewhere. Trust Eric Zweig to wrangle it all into such a full and compelling narrative, which he has done - just as the Leafs look like they're ready to dominate again.

About the Author

Eric Zweig is a managing editor with Dan Diamond & Associates, producers of the annual NHL Official Guide & Record Book since 1984. Eric's books include Twenty Greatest Hockey Goals and Art Ross: The Hockey Legend Who Built the Bruins. He lives in Owen Sound, Ontario.