as a 5 or 6 year old growing up in Burlington (20 mins outside Toronto) it was the jersey that intrigued me - a buffalo and swords compared to a leaf.
It was Gilbert Perreault that hooked me. Lucky that I was able to watch them on Chanel 2 in the mid 70s and listen to their games on the radio, so I had an alterative to just watching the Leafs.