 Ted Kennedy never played for another team , never wanted to , and captained the Toronto Maple Leafs during its greatest era . He has been called the quintessential Maple Leaf . However , Kennedy was never voted to the First All @-@ Star Team . Frank Selke explained Kennedy " never made the First All @-@ Star team because he lacked one thing – colour . He 's been unlucky that way . " On another occasion Selke had said , " Many times men were named who were not his equal in all @-@ round effectiveness . " Despite Kennedy 's sparse acquisition of individual awards , many sportswriters consider Kennedy as possibly the greatest player to have played for the Toronto Maple Leafs . In the book The Maple Leafs Top 100 Kennedy is ranked second only to Dave Keon as the best Toronto Maple Leaf of all time . While The Hockey News ranked Kennedy at only # 57 on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players , in 2009 The Edmonton Journal published a list of top 50 NHL players of All @-@ Time and Ted Kennedy finished at # 10 , ahead of all other Maple Leafs and such players as Howie Morenz and Patrick Roy . The list , with the intention of minimizing subjectivity , was compiled using voting for the Hart and Smythe trophies for most valuable player during the regular season and playoffs respectively . When the list was adjusted to account for the fact that goalies and defensemen are traditionally overlooked for the Hart , Kennedy 's ranking even improved to # 8 . 
