It's that time of year once again, ladies and gentlemen. The school year is officially back on, and I will be returning to the classroom to continue my work spreading Leafs fandom to young minds. I'll regale them with tales of when the Leafs used to be great; when Doug Gilmour scored wraparound goals in blue and white and Wendel Clark took goalies' helmets off from the neutral zone.

While we're in a nostalgic sort of mood, why not take a trip down memory lane with Michael Langlois over at Vintage Leaf Memories and discuss your favourite memories of favourite players? My favourite from his list (even though he's not my favourite player):

Darryl Sittler—He was so much more than his famous 10-point game against the Bruins. A proud Leaf who led a good but not quite good enough Toronto squad in a difficult era when the Flyers and Habs were dominant.

I wonder if we'll later think of Phil Kessel like we do of Darryl Sittler. "What a great player! Too bad he had to play for so many terrible Leafs teams."

Leafs Links:

TLN Top Twenty Prospects: #13 Tom Nilsson
TLN keeps the countdown going with an article from Jon Steitzer.

Other hockey links:

Sick shootout move by Patrick Seifert on German ‘Hockey Day’ (Video)
Wyshynski with the video link.

When it comes to scoring goals, expect more from Nail Yakupov in 2014-15
David Staples is again basing his numbers on scoring chances and so this piece is of limited value, but Yakupov is an interesting player to discuss anyway.

Here and There
Hope In The Big Smoke is still getting healthy, but he posted yesterday just to let you know that he'll be back in action soon!

Is Ilya Bryzgalov Worth Re-signing?
Absolutely, yes. For anyone who isn't the Leafs. Story from Dakota Case at HW.

The NHL Advanced Stats Cheat Sheet
Kent Wilson has a rundown for the uninitiated at TLN.

From The Branches