Jeremy Roenick admits during his Hall-of-Fame celebration that he was very close to joining the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent.
This weekend, the newest members of the Hockey Hall of Fame will be forever enshrined in greatness. The class of 2024 includes Shea Weber, Pavel Datsyuk, David Poile, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, and Jeremy Roenick.
During their celebratory press conference, Roenick admitted that he came very close to joining the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2001 when he was free agent. When asked if there was a team he should have played for he chimed in saying that he told his agent he wanted to come to Toronto, as well as New York and Calgary.
Roenick ended up signing a 5-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers that summer and the ironic part is that he scored the game-winning overtime tally in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals in 2004 that ousted the Maple Leafs – the last time they made the playoffs until 2013.
It was a back and forth affair, Darcy Tucker demolished Sami Kapanen just moments before, Mark Recchi was stoned by Ed Belfour on his odd-man rush before the Flyers forced a turnover on Mats Sundin that set up Roenick’s winner. Roenick and the Flyers ended up losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the following round in 7 games.
During his career, Roenick scored 513 goals and 1,216 points in 1,363 across 20 seasons with 5 different teams. He left the Phoenix Coyotes as a free agent in the summer of 2001 after scoring 88 goals and 226 points over the previous 3 seasons and was a hot commodity.
While the Flyers won the bid for his services, Roenick admits that he asked his agent to get a deal done with Toronto but clearly that never came to pass. He could’ve joined the likes of Sundin, Tucker, Mogilny, Renberg, and McCabe – especially when there wasn’t a fixed salary cap in place – where he could’ve been the missing piece to a Leafs team that lost in the Conference Finals to Carolina that very same season.
Roenick last played in 2008-09 when he was with the San Jose Sharks, but now his Hall-of-Fame career will be forever remembered as he joins the ranks of the NHL’s best. It’s just too bad he enters never having played in Toronto like he wanted to.
