1995-96 Toronto Maple Leafs Doug Gilmour Jersey

Doug Gilmour's junior hockey career was spent with the Cornwall Royals, which included winning the 1981 Memorial Cup and leading the OHL in goals (70), assists (107) and points (177) in 1982-83, which included a 55 game point scoring streak which still stands to this day. His 177 point season remains the third highest in league history and earned him the league's Most Outstanding Player award in 1983. Still, concerns over his size caused NHL teams to shy away from him before the St. Louis Blues drafted Gilmour in the seventh round of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft after he was passed over entirely when he was first eligible in 1981.

Originally a defenseman in junior hockey, St. Louis signed Gilmour for the 1983-84 season with the thought he could be a defensive forward. His first three seasons with St. Louis saw Gilmour score in the 50 point range before becoming the first player in league history to lead the NHL in playoff scoring without making the Stanley Cup Finals when he registered 21 points in 19 games in 1986. Having demonstrated his offensive skills, he was give the opportunity to move up to one of the Blues top lines and responded with a career high 42 goals on his way to a 105 point season in 1986-87.

Gilmour as a rookie with St. Louis in 1983-84,
the final year of this jersey style

His breakout season earned Gilmour a spot on the Team Canada roster for the 1987 Canada Cup where he scored 2 goals as the Canadians won the championship.

The Blues and Gilmour parted ways when he was dealt to the Calgary Flames prior to the 1988-89 season, which proved beneficial for both Gilmour and the Flames, as he was a key contributor to the Flames first and only Stanley Cup championship that season. He finished tied for second with 85 regular season points and his 11 goals and 11 assists in 22 playoff games were good for third on the club.

Gilmour's move to Calgary would be
immediately rewarded with a Stanley Cup

He would play two and half more seasons in Calgary, including a best of 91 points while with the Flames in 1989-90 before being traded once more, this time to the Toronto Maple Leafs where he was reunited with his former Calgary General Manager Cliff Fletcher in a gigantic 10 player deal. Gilmour was immediately productive in Toronto, scoring 49 points in 40 games.

Gilmour after being traded to Toronto in 1991-92,
also the final year for this long-lived jersey style

His second season with the Maple Leafs proved to be the finest of his career. While Gilmour notched 32 goals during the season, his playmaking skills produced assists and a tremendous clip. He would continue to pile up the points, eventually pushing the mark up to 127 total points, which still stands as the club record, now 23 years later. Gilmour's 95 assists that season were easily more than double his next closest teammate Glenn Anderson's 43. Following the season Gilmour was named the winner of the Selke Trophy and finished second in voting for the prestigious Hart Trophy. Additionally, he became extremely popular with the fans in Toronto thanks to his all-out, two-way style of play, evidenced by his accumulation of scars nearly as quickly as points.

Gilmour during his record setting second season with the Maple Leafs

During the postseason, Gilmour led the Maple Leafs to the conference finals following Game 7 wins over both the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues before stretching the Los Angeles Kings to a seventh game as he scored an impressive 35 points in 21 games, second most in the league despite not advancing to the finals.

The following season Gilmour finished the season fourth in the NHL in scoring, with his 111 points only one back of Adam Oates' 112. Gilmour again continued to excel in the postseason with 28 points in 18 games, ten more than any other Maple Leaf, as the again returned to the conference finals after defeating the Chicago Blackhawks in 6 and the San Jose Sharks in 7 before falling to the Vancouver Canucks in 5.

The following NHL season was delayed with labor issues until January of 1995, and in the meantime Gilmour kept himself occupied by playing for Rapperswill-Jona in the Swiss National League A for a nine game stint before joining Wayne Gretzky's all-star hockey tour of Europe and then returning to Canada and taking part in the NHLPA's Four-on-Four Tournament, where his Team Ontario won the championship. With the labor issues finally settled, Gilmour returned to Toronto where he was named as the club's new captain, a rank he would hold for the remainder of his time with the team. With the season finally underway, Gilmour would score 33 points in 44 games.

He returned strong in 1995-96 with a 32 goal season, his fourth and final 30 goal season of his career, on his way to 72 points, good for second on the team. His 72 points included 40 assists, which included  a pair on this date in 1995 during a 6-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers to give him 1,000 career points.

Gilmour's final season with Toronto came in 1996-97 when he played in 61 games before a trade to the New Jersey Devils, as the Maple Leafs had slipped from their two peak seasons of 99 and 98 points down to a season which would conclude with 68 points, necessitating a rebuilding effort for Toronto which saw Gilmour dealt for three players in return.

Maple Leafs captain Gilmour during his final season in Toronto

Gilmour would then play another season for the Devils, two for the Chicago Blackhawks before a trade to the Buffalo Sabres, with whom he would play one season prior to two seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. During that period of his career, Gilmour's game, along with the style of play in the NHL, would see his point scoring limited to less than 60 per season. At the trade deadline of his second season with Montreal, he was traded back to Toronto, but fate would intervene as a collision during his second shift would result in a torn ACL, causing him to miss the remainder of the season and prior to Gilmour announcing his retirement prior to the start of the 2003-04 season.

Gilmour would finish with 1,474 games played during which he scored 450 goals and 964 assists for 1,414 points.

The Maple Leafs would honor Gilmour's #93 on January 31, 2009 and he would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011.

Today's featured jersey is a 1995-96 Toronto Maple Leafs Doug Gilmour jersey as worn during the game in which he scored his 1,000th NHL point, only the 44th player to ever reach that milestone in the then 79 year history of the NHL.

This jersey was first worn in 1992-93, as detailed below. This style would remain unchanged through the 1996-97 season after which a modernized font would be introduced for the names and numbers, ruining the classic retro feeling of the previous iteration.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1992-93 Toronto Maple Leafs Doug Gilmour jersey as worn during the game in which he broke the Maple Leafs single season scoring record. Following the well received Turn Back the Clock jersey worn by Toronto for select games during the previous season in honor of the NHL's 75th Anniversary, the Maple Leafs debuted a brand new jersey for the 1992-93 season, which featured a much more simple and classic style.

The twin white stripes on the arms and waist were first used by Toronto in 1934-35 and remained in use all the way through 1966-67. That basic jersey was paired with the Maple Leafs current, modern logo as well as the Turn Back the Clock jersey's retro style leaf logo as the new secondary shoulder patches. Despite changes in the fonts for the names and numbers for a period and the transition to the new Reebok Edge jerseys in 2007-08, this jersey has remained in use for as long as Gilmour's scoring record has stood.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1991-92 Toronto Maple Leafs Turn Back the Clock Doug Gilmour jersey. This is the jersey which inspired the changes in the Maple Leafs jersey for 1992-93, ditching the previous style, which had frankly run it's course, in favor of the retro inspired new jersey.

Today's video segment begins with Gilmour's 1,000th NHL point on an assist on a goal by Mats Sundin.

Next, the first part of the jersey honoring ceremony for Gilmour by the Maple Leafs.

No one is a bigger fan of "Dougie" than Don Cherry, and not just because they both hail from Kingston, Ontario. How many times do you think that he would be suspended for those hits in today's NHL?