Amid a season of historic achievements for the Leafs‘ rookie crop, Mike Babcock regularly referred to Brown and Hyman as the unsung heroes on account of their day in, day out work ethic and contributions on special teams, labelling them “animals” with high-end “drive trains.”
Brown, in particular, put together a rookie campaign that would’ve generated a lot more buzz in the city of Toronto had it taken place in a normal year. Before the 2016-17 season in which all of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Brown achieved the feat, Mikhail Grabovski was the last Leaf rookie to score 20 goals back in 2008-09; prior to Grabovski, we have to go back to Sergei Berezin in 1996-97.