Borje Salming

Not surprisingly, Salming was given his own trial by fire: at the Leafs' next match, against a tough Philadelphia Flyers team whose ice style was so fierce they were nicknamed the "Broad Street Bullies," Salming was body-checked, sticked, taunted as a "chicken Swede," and even punched. At 6'1" and 190 pounds, Salming was physically imposing enough to handle the abuse, and his fortitude quickly endeared him to Toronto fans. In an article titled "New Immigration Policy: Sign a Swede" by Sports Illustrated's Mark Mulvoy, even Maple Leaf coach Red Kelly admitted he had his initial doubts about signing Salming and Hammarstrom. "Then I saw them skate and many of my doubts disappeared. They did things with their feet that you can't teach players." Kelly called Salming "an outstanding shot-blocker" who once took a puck in his stomach fired from just ten feet away, and noted that there was a certain grace to his skating style as well. "When he makes a turn on the ice, he does it with the style of a figure skater, moving his upper body first, not his legs."

Salming's talents as a defenseman proved so impressive that he won the Molson Cup after his rookie NHL season. Over the next few years he made the All-Star team six times, and by 1976 had become the Leafs' most famous player, as well as the crowd favorite. That year, he was signed to a new five-year contract totaling a cool $1 million. Gammons called him "the Swedish Bobby Orr," equating him with the exceptional Boston Bruins defenseman and hockey's biggest star of the 1970s; both were quiet men who spoke infrequently to the press. "Like Orr, he plays with remarkable instinct and flair, displaying a recklessness that seems beyond reason or science," Gammon asserted about Salming, and noted he had become "the player around whom the Maple Leafs revolve—offensively and defensively."