When former president Brendan Shanahan was dismissed by the Toronto Maple Leafs after 11 seasons, many focused on the irony of a former elite NHL power forward (eight All-Star selections, three Stanley Cup rings) trying to restore the franchise’s glory days through a finesse-first philosophy.
While the Leafs were consistent regular-season contenders, their repeated playoff collapses left a permanent blemish on the so-called Shanaplan. Frustrated fans balked at the lack of toughness, the all-skill obsession, the franchise’s reliance on the “core four” (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares) and their bloated contracts.
Off the ice, however, Shanahan transformed the organization: rebuilding hockey operations, modernizing brand marketing, investing heavily in player development and team support systems, strengthening community engagement, and reviving alumni relations and heritage.
It’s that last achievement — heritage revitalization — that has haunted the team most.
In 2016, Shanahan unveiled a uniform redesign meant to unite elements from the Leafs’ long history. The logo drew from the 1940s–60s era and featured symbolic details: 31 points for the 1931 opening of Maple Leaf Gardens, 17 veins for the 1917 founding, and 13 top points for the team’s Stanley Cup titles. The crest was enlarged, the motto “Honour. Pride. Courage.” was stitched into the collar, the shoulder patch was removed, and the waist stripes reduced from two to one — all in pursuit of a cleaner, modern aesthetic.
But in doing so, Shanahan went one step too far. He omitted the team’s most distinctive and successful visual feature — the legendary hockey-sock striping pattern, shown in the photo above. And in that oversight, hockeyspy.ca says, the Shanahan Curse was born. An oversight that newly added chief of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, Keith Pelley, needs to address. Now.
That iconic pattern, unique among the Original Six, accompanied multiple Stanley Cup wins and remained unmatched until 1968, when NHL expansion arrived and former Leafs coach and GM Punch Imlach, now running the Buffalo Sabres, spitefully borrowed the design for Buffalo’s debut uniforms — a classic “payback is a bitch” move aimed at Toronto.
Though the Sabres long ago changed their look, Toronto’s abandonment of the stripes in the early 1970s seems to have cursed them ever since. The Leafs’ sweaters may be cleaner, but the Cup drought endures.
And while Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment continues to thrive on the stock market, its neglect of the sock market ensures that the Shanahan Curse lives on.
