LAS VEGAS—Ben Danford got his first Maple Leafs jersey when he was four. Then he got one with Phil Kessel’s name on it.
And now the six-foot-one, Oshawa Generals right-shot defenceman has his name on a Leafs jersey after the team of his childhood dreams took him in the first round of the NHL draft, 31st overall.
“It feels great,” Danford said as he made the media rounds at the Las Vegas Sphere. “I’ve been a lifelong Leafs fan, so it makes it that much more special to get drafted by them.”
Lately, he has been a fan of defenceman Morgan Rielly. There are some similarities to their games. He had a goal and 32 assists in 64 games, and a solid post-season with four goals and six assists in 21 games.
“I’m a 200-foot guy, I’m a strong skater, good hockey IQ,” he said. “I compete hard. That’s the main thing that headlines my strengths. I block shots. I’ll do anything to help the team win.
“I feel like, offensively, I have some steps to unlock. I feel like that’s something to work on. But I feel like, with my ability of skating and hockey sense, it’s there.”
He wore an “A” for the Generals last season, and represented Canada at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, winning a gold medal.
The Madoc, Ont., native, like Easton Cowan last year, wasn’t rated as a first-round pick by most. But Elite Prospects had him rated 30th, saying Danford “thinks the game in a more advanced way than most … and shows a lot of poise on retrieval, spinning off forecheckers, and attracting them before passing.”
NHL Central Scouting rated him the 35th best skater in North America, calling him a smooth skater who plays with poise and smarts. “Very confident with the puck on his stick. A dynamic power-play contributor who often runs the PP from the top position. He is a smart shooter and puck distributor, possess a very high offensive IQ and is a big point contributor on the back end. Has utilized his skating and smarts to mature his defensive game.”
The Leafs did a little trade magic to get the 31st pick. They had the 23rd pick and then none again until the fourth round. They traded No. 23 to Anaheim, for Nos. 31 and 58. The Ducks selected defenceman Stian Solberg with the 23rd pick they got from Toronto.
When the Leafs traded down, Danford had an inkling they were going to take him.
“That got my hopes up a little bit higher,” he said. “I didn’t overthink it. Anything can happen. I had talked to them and they seemed interested, but you don’t know anything until you hear your name called.”
Madoc is about halfway between pc28and Ottawa. But it was the Leafs, not the Senators, on the Danford TV because the Leafs were his dad’s team. The family owns a construction company, Danford Construction, and it sounds as if the defenceman has a fallback career if hockey doesn’t work out.
“I can operate heavy machinery, excavators, backhoes, things like that,” Danford said. “I don’t do that as work. But I can operate them. It’s fun. I’ve been doing it since I was 13. My grandpa takes me out in it. You get the hang of it.”
The draft continues Saturday, with the Leafs having seven picks from the second to seventh rounds.
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