Frank Mahovlich honoured with Legend's Row induction

Timmins’ own Frank Mahovlich is receiving an honour reserved for only the all-time greatest Toronto Maple Leafs.

He, along with Leonard Patrick “Red” Kelly, Charlie Conacher and Wendel Clark have been named to Legend’s Row, a row of statues in front of the Air Canada Centre.

An unveiling ceremony will be held for the new statues this fall to bring the compliment to 14.

The four will join the likes of Cochrane’s Tim Horton and greats like Darryl Sittler, Ted Kennedy, Johnny Bower, Borje Salming, George Armstrong, Syl Apps, Mats Sundin, Dave Keon and Turk Broda.

It’s one of many honours bestowed open the local man in the last few months.  Mahovlich was named to the NHL’s “100 Greatest Players” in league history at the NHL Centennial Classic on New Year’s Day, and had his number 27 retired by the Leafs in October, an honour that he shared with Sittler.

He also had his old retirement banner returned to Timmins during a ceremony he attended in November, as part of Rogers Hometown Hockey festivities at the McIntyre Arena.  He shared the ceremony with another local legend in Bill Barilko.

(You can revisit our coverage of that weekend HERE.)

In a released issued by the team, Mahovlich says he’s “honoured to have my likeness depicted in a statue as a Toronto Maple Leaf and particularly to be in the company of my friend and teammate of seven years Red Kelly.”

Of course, Mahovlich and Kelly were dynamite together and helped lead a Maple Leafs dynasty that won 4 Stanley Cups in the 1960’s.

He recalls the time Kelly joined the team as a defenseman, but was later placed up as a centre on a line between Mahovlich and another Timmins man, Bob Nevin.

“Red and I, it seemed we played all our lives together as soon as we were put on together…it clicked, he became a great forward,” he said.

And that’s not an easy transition either, Mahovlich later talked about how Gordie Howe and even Bobby Orr tried their hands at alternative positions but just seemed out of place.

Successful transitions still exist in the modern day NHL with guys like San Jose’s Brent Burns and Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien

Speaking of current times, Mahovlich is liking what he sees in the current Maple Leafs franchise and sees similarities to when he first joined the club.

“I can remember our club…Toronto was in trouble, they hadn’t made the playoffs in 2 or 3 years and when I joined the club…we got some good names there and all of a sudden, it was there and it was magic and I got the same feeling about this (current) club.”

Like many, the Big M was marveled by the four-goal NHL debut of 2016 first overall pick Auston Matthews against Ottawa.

“I could identify with him, I says ‘I did that’,” drawing a nostalgic laughter from the media crowd, “And this is the excitement that Toronto’s in right now, and I hope it keeps up.”

Mahovlich says it’ll take “a few more moves,” but the potential for a Stanley Cup contender is “going to be there.”

As we know, he’s no stranger to winning a few Cups.  Mahovlich would tack on two more in Montreal in the 1970’s before retiring.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981.

Mahovlich was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1998 and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1994.

(With files from the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club.)