St. John’s Maple Leafs

American Hockey League (1991-2005)

Tombstone

Born: May 2, 1991 – The Newmarket Saints relocate to St. John’s, NF
Move Announced: August 9, 2004 (Toronto Marlies)

First Game: October 9, 1991 (L 6-4 @ Hershey Bears)
Last Game: April 20, 1995 (L 2-0 @ Fredericton Canadiens)

Calder Cup Championships: None

Arenas

1991-2001: Memorial Stadium (3,910)¹

2001-2005: Mile One Stadium (5,813)

Marketing

Team Colors: Blue & White²

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Maple Leafs Gardens, Ltd.

NHL Affiliation: Toronto Maple Leafs

Background

The St. John’s Maple Leafs were the long-time top farm club of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Leafs best season in the American Hockey League was their first during the winter of 1991-92. After finishing 2nd place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division that winter, the Leafs advanced to the 1992 Calder Cup finals against the Adirondack Red Wings. The Leafs lost to Adirondack 4 games to 3 in a strange series that saw the road team win all seven games. St. John’s never returned to the Calder Cup finals.

On The Ice

Future NHL All-Stars who spent time in St. John’s included:

Center Yanic Perreault (St. John’s ’91-’94)
Goaltender Felix Potvin (St. John’s ’91-’92)

Defenseman Joel Quenneville finished his playing career with St. John’s during the 1991-92 season following 13 NHL seasons. He later became one of the most successful head coaches in the NHL, winning 3 Stanley Cups (to date). He has recorded more NHL wins as a coach than anyone else in league history except for Scotty Bowman.

The aforementioned Yanic Perreault was St. John’s all-time leading goal scorer (132) and points leader (276).

Move To Toronto & Aftermath

As late as 1996 the AHL fielded a 5-team Atlantic Division that included a club from each of Canada’s four Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. But fast forward seven years later and the AHL’s withdrawal from the Atlantic provinces was nearly complete. When the Calgary Flames moved their top farm club operation from New Brunswick to Massachusetts in May 2003, St. John’s became the last team standing in Atlantic Canada.

When the Edmonton Oilers pulled their AHL farm club out of Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum in 2004, it opened up an opportunity for Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment to bring Toronto’s top farm club home from Newfoundland. The shift of the St. John’s Maple Leafs to Toronto was announced in August 2004. The Leafs played one final lame duck season in Newfoundland in 2004-05 and then became the Toronto Marlies in the fall of 2005.

The AHL returned to Mile One Stadium in 2011 with the formation of the St. John’s IceCaps (2011-2017). But the IceCaps moved to Quebec in 2017 and the AHL once again departed the Atlantic provinces of Canada entirely.

The Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL now play at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, the former home of the Leafs.