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During the 1960s, as the NHL moved from the Original Six era into expansion, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs won nine out of the possible 10 Stanley Cups for the decade (five for Montreal, four for Toronto). While each team was loaded with future Hall of Fame players, two of the brightest stars were centers Dave Keon of the Maple Leafs and Henri Richard of the Canadiens – despite relatively diminutive physical sizes (both stood less than 5’10”), each was a giant on the ice, playing nearly 20 years apiece for their respective franchises and serving as captain for a number of those years. Even more than half a century later, these two stars from a bygone era remain legends of the game – in comparing the duo, the question arises:
Who was better – Dave Keon or Henri Richard?
The Beginning
Both native sons of Quebec province in Canada, Keon and Richard each starred for their local junior hockey teams before making the leap to the NHL with their hometown teams in Toronto and Montreal, respectively.
As a teenager, Keon played for Toronto’s St. Michael’s Buzzers of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) at both the Junior B and Junior A level, where he established himself as a top-notch NHL prospect. Then, at the age of 20, he briefly joined the minor league Sudbury Wolves in the Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL) before making his debut with the Maple Leafs for the 1960-1961 season – with 20 goals and 25 assists for 45 points and a +12 +/- rating in a 70-game season, Keon earned the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
The younger brother of superstar Maurice Richard (in a family of eight children, they were separated by 15 years of age), Henri followed in his brother’s hockey footsteps and played for the junior Canadiens as a teenager, where he led the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in scoring for two years in a row before getting the call-up to the big league team. In his first season with Montreal at age 19, Henri joined his older brother (who was nearing the end of his brilliant career) and had a solid rookie season, finishing third for the Calder with 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points.
Career Comparison
As two of the greatest players in Maple Leafs and Canadiens history, respectively, Keon and Richard were franchise stalwarts for 15-20 years apiece, not only providing consistent production year in and year out, but also leadership as team captains.
With six straight 20-goal seasons to begin his NHL career, Keon quickly established himself as one of the league’s top two-way centers. As an encore to his rookie year, he tallied 61 points (26 goals and 35 assists) with a career-best +40 +/- rating in 1961-1962 and earned the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for “sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability” (only one penalty taken the whole season!). This was followed by a second straight Lady Byng in 1962-1963 on the strength of 56 points and a +8 +/- rating with just 2 penalty minutes; though he never won another Lady Byng, Keon finished top-five on seven other occasions, including runner-up 3x, and incredibly, only had four NHL seasons with more than 10 penalty minutes.
Along with his clean play, Keon was an incredibly consistent scorer, generally racking up around 50-60 points annually (he was between 45 and 62 points for the first decade of his career); while more of a 20-25 goal scorer for the better part of the 1960s, he reached 30 goals for the first time in 1969-1970 (32 goals and 30 assists for 62 points, though with a -15 +/- rating) and also took over the Maple Leafs’ captaincy from George Armstrong, a position he would hold for the rest of his Toronto tenure. The next season was arguably the best of Keon’s career: with career-highs of 38 goals and 38 assists for 76 points with a +25 +/- rating, he not only was again Lady Byng runner-up, but finished a career-best fourth for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. However, he dipped to only 48 points in 72 games played the next year before bouncing back with his last great season as a Maple Leaf: 37 goals and 36 assists for 73 points and a +3 +/- rating in 1972-1973. Though still productive as he reached his mid-30s, Keon clashed with team owner Harold Ballard and because the team still controlled his NHL rights, he jumped to the fledgling World Hockey Association (WHA) and signed with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.
Over the next four seasons, Keon played with three different WHA teams (Minnesota, the Indianapolis Racers, and the New England Whalers), twice winning the Paul Deneau Trophy (the WHA’s equivalent of the Lady Byng). With the Whalers joining the NHL for the 1979-1980 season, he spent three additional seasons playing for now-Hartford, briefly centering a line with Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull, two of his rivals in the 1960s with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, respectively. By the time he retired after the 1981-1982 season, Keon was the league’s oldest player at age 42.
Centering a line with his brother Maurice and fellow future Hall of Famer Dickie Moore early in his career, Richard likewise quickly became a star in his own right (the “Pocket Rocket” to his “Rocket” sibling) – in his third season in 1957-1958, he posted 28 goals and a league-high and career-best 52 assists for a career-high 80 points to finish fourth for the Hart and fifth for the Lady Byng. A couple of years later, he had his only 30-goal campaign in 1959-1960 (30 goals and 43 assists for 73 points and a +21 +/- rating). This was followed by 24 points and 44 assists for 68 points and a +18 +/- rating in 1960-1961; again similar to Keon, Richard was extremely consistent year in and year out – after his rookie season, he would have 50+ points for the next 11 years.
With Maurice’s retirement in 1960, the younger Richard was able to step out of his kin’s shadow and remained one of the league’s top pivot men. In 1962-1963, he again led the league in assists (50) while adding 23 goals for 73 points with a +24 +/- rating. Over the next few seasons, he continued to perform at a high level, including another top-five Hart finish (fourth) in 1966-1967 on the strength of 21 goals and 34 assists for 55 points and a +2 +/- rating. However, this was followed by arguably the worst statistical season of Richard’s long career, as he managed just 28 points in 54 games in 1967-1968. Any concerns about a decline were quickly squashed, though, as he rebounded with 52 points (15 goals and 37 assists) with a +24 +/- rating.
Following the retirement of Jean Beliveau in 1971, Richard assumed the captain’s “C” for the Canadiens and would hold that title for the rest of his career. Even in his mid-30s, he remained a steady 50-point producer annually – with 19 goals and 36 assists for 55 points and a +7 +/- rating in 1973-1974, he was honored with the Masterton Trophy for perseverance for his two decades in Montreal. Finally, after being limited to 16 games during the 1974-1975 season, Richard retired at the age of 38, having played his entire career in Montreal and holding the franchise record for most career games played; moreover, he was just the ninth player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points, a milestone even his legendary brother Maurice had fallen short of.
Due to Keon spending four seasons in the WHA, Richard played more NHL seasons (20 vs. 18), but actually slightly fewer games; nevertheless, the latter produced more career assists and points with a better +/- rating, though the former did score more career goals (plus Keon also added 291 WHA points and most likely would have reached 1,000 career NHL points had he not defected for nearly a half a decade). As a testament to each player’s longevity and consistency, Keon produced more 20 and 30-goal seasons (11 vs. 9 and 3 vs. 1, respectively), while Richard had more 70+ point seasons (3x vs. 2x) with a slightly higher career points-per-game average (0.83 vs. 0.76; Keon also averaged 0.97 points per game in the WHA). The pair are also relatively close in All-Star Games (9 for Richard vs. 8 for Keon), with Keon earning more individual hardware with a pair of Lady Byngs and a Calder to Richard’s Masterton. After each legend hung up his skates, he was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, Richard in 1979 followed by Keon in 1986.
Regular Season Statistics
| Dave Keon | Player | Henri Richard |
| 18 (1960-1975, 1979-1982) | Seasons | 20 (1955-1975) |
| 1,296 | Games Played | 1,258 |
| 396 | Goals | 358 |
| 590 | Assists | 688 |
| 986 | Points | 1,046 |
| +61 | +/- | +243 |
| 8x | All-Star Games | 9x |
| – | Hart Trophies | – |
| – | Ross Trophies | – |
| 4x | Stanley Cups | 11x |
| 1x | Conn Smythes | – |
| 2x Lady Byng, ROY | Other Awards | 1x Masterton |
| 1986 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1979 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
As arguably the two dominant teams of the 1960s, the Maple Leafs and Canadiens won nine of the 10 Stanley Cups during the decade and faced off frequently in the playoffs (during the Original Six era, four of the six teams made the playoffs annually), though Keon and Richard actually only played against each other in the Finals once. In the 1966-1967 Stanley Cup Finals, Toronto beat Montreal in six games, the last time the Maple Leafs have won the Cup or even made it to the Finals. Moreover, Keon earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP for shutting down the Canadiens’ Beliveau despite just 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points with a +1 +/- rating during the postseason, making it the lowest point total ever by a Conn Smythe winner and the only time a Maple Leafs player has won the award; meanwhile, Richard was productive in defeat with 10 points (4 goals and 6 assists) and a +4 +/- rating.
In addition to the 1966-1967 Stanley Cup triumph, Keon was a 13x NHL playoff participant (12x with the Maple Leafs and 1x with the Whalers) who saw his greatest success during Toronto’s heyday in the early 1960s when they won three consecutive titles:
- 1961-1962: 5 goals and 3 assists for 8 points and a +6 +/- as Toronto beat the Blackhawks in six games
- 1962-1963: 7 goals and 5 assists for 12 points and a postseason-leading +10 +/- rating in a five-game victory over the Red Wings
- 1963-1964: 7 goals and 2 assists for 9 points and a +9 +/- rating in another win over Detroit, this time in the full seven games
Even more impressively, Richard made the postseason in all but two of his NHL seasons (18x) and his 11 Stanley Cup titles are the most in NHL history (just ahead of Beliveau’s 10) and tied with Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics in the NBA for most championships won as a player across the four major North American sports leagues. This string of titles started with five straight Cups from 1955-1956 to 1959-1960, including a pair of wins over the Maple Leafs just before Keon’s time and a playoff-leading 12 points with a +6 +/- rating in 1959-1960; it was followed by another four titles in five seasons from 1964-1965 to 1968-1969 and concluded with two more championships in the 1970s, including a 1970-1971 title that saw Richard tie his personal postseason high with 12 points (5 goals and 7 assists with a +4 +/- rating) as the 34-year-old team captain and score the Cup-clinching goal in Game 7 vs. the Blackhawks.
Playoff Statistics
| Dave Keon | Player | Henri Richard |
| 92 | Games Played | 180 |
| 32 | Goals | 49 |
| 36 | Assists | 80 |
| 68 | Points | 129 |
| +13 | +/- | +21 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; after dominating in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, both Keon and Richard remained pillars of consistency at the center position for essentially two decades apiece. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Dave Keon | Player | Henri Richard |
| 1961-1967, 1968-1971, 1972-1973 | Decade of Dominance | 1957-1967 |
| 701 | Games Played | 636 |
| 275 | Goals | 227 |
| 330 | Assists | 389 |
| 605 | Points | 616 |
| +95 | +/- | +118 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
At their respective peaks, Keon was a more dangerous goal-scorer and a great defensive center, while Richard was the better playmaker and had more points in fewer games played with a clear advantage in per-game scoring (0.97 vs. 0.86 points per game).
My Thoughts
Even with the passage of time, the legacies of Dave Keon and Henri Richard are indelible – the former is arguably the greatest player in Toronto history, while the latter remains the ultimate winner as an NHL player; in fact, given free agency these days and the expansion of the league from six teams to 32 with the arrival of the Seattle Kraken, it seems unlikely that Richard’s 11 Stanley Cups as a player will ever be matched. Between these two great contemporary centers, while Keon was a superb two-way pivot and stakes a claim to being the best Maple Leaf player of all-time, I have to give the edge to Richard: not only does he have slightly better career numbers, but his winning ways cannot be discounted – even if he is only the second-best hockey player in his own family, it is not like he was simply along for the ride on all of those Stanley Cup titles, but rather, the younger Richard was the epitome of a winning hockey player.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Henri Richard
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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