In 1970, Maple Leafs star center Dave Keon was celebrated for a comeback season. And in this story from THN's archive, Keon's rise back to prominence was put under the spotlight.

In the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, few players have been as decorated and celebrated as Dave Keon. And in this feature story from the special-edition "Hockey Annual" magazine THN produced on Jan. 1, 1970, Keon's comeback impact on the Leafs was put under the spotlight by writer Gil Smith:

‘COMEBACK KID’ OF THE LEAFS

By Gil Smith

He finished 26th in the scoring and received the sum total of one vote towards an All-Star berth, hut Dave Keon could look upon last season as his “Year of the Comeback.”

He could take pride in his accomplishments, because the year before that he’d scored a miserable 11 goals in 67 games and gave the impression that he’d lost the magic touch which had made him one of the top centers in the NHL.

“He was skating and moving the puck in his oldtime style last season,” said a teammate. “He seemed to have regained the confidence he’d lost during the 1967-68 season, when the puck just wouldn’t go into the net for him. He made a fine comeback, in that sense, last year.”

At 29 years of age Keon may consider himself a bit young to be tabbed with the “Comeback” label, but this is a man whose career positively soared during his first few seasons in the NHL, and then, by comparison, settled into something of a rut before hitting a real low-spot during the 1967-68 campaign.

To get the full story on Keon you have to go back some 15 years, to the time when he was a scrawny kid preparing to make his first trip away from home. Home, in those days, was the mining community of Noranda, Quebec, and Davey was the eldest of a family that included four sisters and a brother. 

He’d been playing hockey there for an unsponsored team called the Noranda Mines Juveniles, and basking in the reflected glory of NHL star Tod Sloan, who happened to be his first cousin. Dave hardly knew Sloan, who was a 220 career goal-scorer with Toronto and Chicago, but it was nice to have a guy like that for a cousin. It did a lot for a kid’s image in the confines of beautiful, downtown Noranda. ’

As far as Keon knew, no one knew or particularly cared about how he was developing as a hockey player, and life was smooth and uncomplicated. Everyone knew he’d grow up to be one of the better citizens of the town, and would probably marry Lola Hillman, his childhood sweetheart who was growing up to be the town beauty. The book seemed to be closed on Keon before the story line had a chance to really develop. Then came an invitation to attend a tryout camp at Hamilton, which was sponsored by the Detroit Red Wings hockey club. That really caused a flurry in downtown Noranda. And, in the Keon household.

For one thing, Dave hadn’t been away from home before and a trip to distant Hamilton was something to ponder. Another puzzling thing was the fact that while his team, the Noranda Mines Juveniles, was an unsponsored outfit, it was coached by someone who scouted for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So, how come he was invited for a tryout at a Detroit sponsored camp? In any case, fie went to Hamilton. And, returned to Noranda. 

His parents thought he was a bit too young to be away from home, and that decision probably cost the Detroit Red Wings one of the best centers in hockey. It also gave Toronto Maple Leaf scout Bob Davidson the opportunity of making sure that if Keon went anywhere in pro hockey, it would be in the direction of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not long after that, Dave was persuaded to leave his home and hearth in Noranda — with parental consent, of course — and move to Toronto to enroll in Toronto St. Mike’s. That’s where he met Father Bauer.

“He taught me many things,” Keon has said. “Including the value of publicity and the dangers of it.” Later, Keon was to elaborate on that statement in a HOCKEY PICTORIAL interview with writer Margaret Scott. Said he: “I’ve been told I’m very evasive during an interview, difficult to pin down to a direct answer. One reporter said a discussion with me was similar to an interview with Father Bauer. I guess some of his methods must have rubbed off on me at St. Mike’s, because he never gives rash replies.”

Warming up to his theme, Dave continued: “Through Father Bauer I learned the value of publicity and also its pitfalls. Even good press clippings can be as adverse as poor ones. Too many good ones can go to a young fellow’s head while the bad ones often result from something he said, frequently thoughtlessly, and backfire alarmingly.”

There just might’ve been a secondary motive for keeping Keon away from the press and publicity boys during his formative years with St. Mike’s, and it would be this: if no one knows you have a prospect, no one will attempt to steal him away. In any event, Keon developed quietly at the Toronto college, but there was a problem. He didn’t check. 

It reached the point where Father Bauer and coach Bob Goldham began to issue ultimatums. The burden of them was: “Learn to check or you won’t make the NHL.” Keon eventually jumped straight from Junior ranks to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but, at first, he was something of a question mark because of his poor checking. There was some talk of farming him out to Rochester of the AHL, initially, but Keon forestalled the move by changing his attitude on the question of checking.

“I had always regarded checking as a dreary chore,” he said. “It was never my strong point. My offensive ability always seemed more important to me. But, I was told that a well-trained player is strong in both departments, and, as I didn’t want to play in a lesser league than the NHL, I buckled down and worked at it. Now, I get satisfaction from it.”

Keon’s beginnings in the NHL were little short of sensational, and were made all the more so by the fact that he was a virtual unknown to writers and broadcasters covering the NHL beat. He took everyone by surprise. Also, his appearance was such that few gave him a chance to succeed against the rugged NHL competition. He was small, slender and pale looking, and had a choir-boy air about him in those days. When he skated out for the opening game of the 1960-61 season, against Canadiens in the Montreal Forum, and prepared to take the face-off against towering Jean Beliveau, he looked like the epitome of the boy being sent on a man’s errand.

“I had a bad case of nerves that night,” he recalled. “I don’t think it was entirely due to the fact that we were playing against Canadiens. Every rookie quakes a bit in his first game.”

Keon scored 20 goals in his first NHL season, and won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie-of-year. To capture the rookie prize, he beat out such competition as teammate Bob Nevin and Canadiens’ talented Tremblays—Gilles and J.C. In his sophomore season, he won the Lady Byng Trophy with two minutes in penalties in 64 games. He also won the J.P. Bickell trophy, awarded annually to the best Leaf. He scored 26 goals and 35 assists that season, and made the second All-Star team; becoming the first Leaf center so honored since 1955-56, when cousin Tod Sloan turned the trick. 

That turned out, curiously enough, to be the one and only All-Star berth that Keon has captured, to date, and points up an interesting fact about Toronto centers and All-Star teams, going back to 1930-31, only one Toronto pivot, Syl Apps, had ever been voted to the No. 1 All-Star squad. Apps made it twice, in 1938-39 and 1941-42. And, in the 39 seasons from 1930-31 up to and including last year, only five men on the Leafs Apps, Keon, Sloan, Ted Kennedy and Joe Primeau — have ever been voted to the second All-Star team while playing center for the Toronto club. Is there some kind of conspiracy against Leaf pivots, or is their style of play so unspectacular that no one appreciates how good they are?

In any case, Keon was robbed of another All-Star spot in his third NHL season, when he hit for 28 goals and 28 assists while establishing himself as one of the best Leafs to have come along in years.