Chatting with the Captain

Darryl Sittler talks about his new book, autographs, and more.

- Stephen Laroche

While today’s Toronto Maple Leafs fans are getting excited about the young talent that could build the team into a contender, there are generations of fans that fondly recall an era where the team exhibited a great deal of character and ranked among the best in the league thanks to its high-scoring captain, Darryl Sittler.

For 11 seasons in Toronto, he proved to be a strong leader and legendary offensive talent, ranking second on the team’s all-time list for goals, assists, and points. A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Sittler was recently ranked fourth among all Maple Leafs by a panel of experts and in addition to scoring the winning goal at the inaugural Canada Cup back in 1976, is also the only player in NHL history to record 10 points in a single game.

The subject of a new book entitled Captain: My Life and Career, Sittler partnered up with veteran hockey author Mike Leonetti to give his fans an informal, intimate, and informative look at his career, family, and friends. Richly illustrated with some never before-seen photos and taking an almost conversational tone, readers and fans gain tremendous insight into his life on and off the ice.

“This isn’t actually an autobiography that is coming out. I had an autobiography back in 1991 or 92 (Sittler with Chrys Goyens). This book is more my life and career in short stories and photos,” Sittler told Beckett Hockey. “A lot of photos went in it and short stories to go with the photo. Some of it is to do with hockey, some of it is to do with a lot of other personal things whether it is Terry Fox, or my wife battling colon cancer, or different charities I was involved with, or different people I met in my life. So, it’s a collection of short stories with a bunch of photos that people wouldn’t have had the privilege to see before.”