WI: Bobby Orr Plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Bobby Orr spent most of his NHL career playing for the Boston Bruins, but it didn't have to be that way. IIRC, Orr grew up as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan along with the rest of his family, and reflecting back years later, Orr said that he was sure he could have ended up as a Leaf if they had shown the same interest in him towards his parents as the Bruins had. So, lets say the Leafs manage to sign Orr to a contract, and he starts laying for them during the 1966-67 season. How would the history of the Leafs and Bobby Orr be different if that happened? What about the history of the NHL and hockey in general?

Also, just as a side note, this probably means the Oshawa Generals might not come back, since IIRC, they were set up by Boston specifically with the intention to help young Orr along.
 
The Leafs would have to spend a considerable sum of money to get Bobby Orr in the blue and white, which at that time was a problem as the Leafs owner from the late 60s until 1991, Harold Ballard, was a first-class cheapskate. The WHA split would also cause problems for Orr if he's playing for the Leafs.
 

Ming777

Monthly Donor
The Leafs would have to spend a considerable sum of money to get Bobby Orr in the blue and white, which at that time was a problem as the Leafs owner from the late 60s until 1991, Harold Ballard, was a first-class cheapskate. The WHA split would also cause problems for Orr if he's playing for the Leafs.


To be honest, I think Ballard's legacy is the very long cold streak of the Leafs plus the bad luck/performance/lack of ability of the Team to do well during the Season, and thus giving other cities plenty of material for jokes. Essentially, he is the reason why the Leafs suck.
 
No question Ballard was a world-class tightwad: his negative legacy is the lack of a parade in Toronto since the spring of '67 (worse than Bob Clarke's doctrinal legacy in Philadelphia re: goalers/defensemen but that's for another time/place).

Anyhow: had somehow Orr been induced to sign with the Leafs, I agree he would have been a prime target in his late twenties for the WHA: perhaps the New England Whalers would have gotten him to jump. In that case, he spins out the remainder of his career in Connecticut, bolstering that franchise once it's absorbed into the NHL--and causing it, by the way, to remain in Hartford.

Another thought: with Orr in the fold, might the WHA have maintained a shred more credibility, allowing perhaps six teams to be absorbed into the NHL (I can't imagine the NHL in Birmingham, AL; perhaps that franchise would have been relocated to Seattle, Cleveland, or Denver)?

Now, what of the Bruins? That's more of a problem: I don't know if the trade that brought Phil Esposito from the Black Hawks would have happened had the Bruins not been looking for up-front firepower to complement Orr. Perhaps it would have...but somehow, Boston would not have become the power it was in the late '60s/early '70s, IMO.
 
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