Leafs

2023 - 1 - 18

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Image courtesy of "Sportsnet.ca"

How Owen Sound helped shape Maple Leafs goalie coach Curtis ... (Sportsnet.ca)

Before he was a goalie coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Curtis Sanford enjoyed a pro career that took him through 10 teams, five leagues and three ...

“A lot of the memories I have are just memories of the great teammates that I had. I think everybody in the community played a part in my success,” he says. “I got the phone call from Lokomotiv with an opportunity to help kind of start that healing process for that community and that team. And that's the way I approached my entire time playing for the Lokomotiv organization.” “I turn on the TV in the morning before heading out for my workout, and I'm reading this. “You know the city's always going to be buzzing, the rink is always going to be packed. I wanted to be just like him, and I just decided to throw on the pads. “The first time I went and watched him play, I was just in awe. “I pinched myself every time I was able to throw on the jersey,” Sanford says now, looking back on that first year tending the net for the Platers. It was a great experience every time I got to skate on the ice at that rink.” “My first memory was always going to those outdoor rinks on the baseball fields and him teaching me how to skate on the outdoor ice,” he says. But it was a quick relationship that I found with hockey — I fell in love with it really quickly.

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Image courtesy of "The Hockey News"

From the Archives: Aftermath of the Greatest Maple Leafs Trade (The Hockey News)

Trading five players for one center after a Cup-winning season was a risky move for the Toronto Maple Leafs. As Stan Fischler recalls, it was well worth it.

“We had the Murderers’ row of hockey with three 25-goal centermen,” he concluded. However, before the official puck-drop, the Garden toasted the Rangers patriarch Lester Patrick with a “night” in his honor. Well, he was again in December 1947 but with a different team, as noted in the Toronto Telegram headline: Goalie Emile Francis didn’t have much of a chance against the high-flying Max who took a pass from Joe Klukay, and needled his way into position.” In another game against his former mates, Maxie enjoyed a hat trick while motoring the defending Champs to a 12-5 decision. “Max did more things with the puck than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Day said. But when it came to scoring, they were a bunch of little men who were never there.” “Max has the greatest shot in hockey,” Broda said. As a 15-year-old Leafs fan, I couldn’t wait to see Max in action against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. “But when I got to Toronto, I learned from Hap Day that there was more to hockey than I ever dreamed of.” The dipsy-doodling trio was known as the Pony Line. Now that the exchange was completed, Day had to determine where and how to play Maxie.

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Image courtesy of "American Hockey League"

Hoefenmayer coming along down Leafs' development path (American Hockey League)

The Toronto Marlies have had more than their fair share of success in taking raw talent, honing it, and then sending it off to the National Hockey League.

He split the 2020-21 season between the Marlies and ECHL Wichita, then spent most of last season in Newfoundland, helping the Growlers reach the ECHL conference finals. Everyone’s treated equally, and that gives you a lot of room to grow as a person and a player.” He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Sports, and is currently the co-host of Hoefenmayer saw that sales pitch’s logic when he signed a two-year AHL deal with the Marlies in April 2020. [Calle Rosen](https://theahl.com/stats/player/6917), [Pierre Engvall](https://theahl.com/stats/player/6761), [Justin Holl](https://theahl.com/stats/player/5824) — on and on that list goes. The Toronto native was taken in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes, but he never signed with the club. The Leafs invest heavily in development staff and provide prospects with abundant resources on and off the ice, whether it is a Leafs star, a Marlies prospect, or an undrafted free agent playing with their ECHL affiliate in St. Some of that talent has eventually made its way to a role with the Leafs. It comes with a clear sales pitch: come to a well-resourced organization and maximize your NHL potential. Even beyond the Marlies coaching staff, the Leafs feature 11 people on their player development staff alone; another seven people make up the Toronto player development and hockey research department. A key part of the Dubas portfolio then centered around his work as general manager of the Marlies.

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Image courtesy of "TSN"

'To beat the Leafs, it feels great': Scheifele explains why wins vs ... (TSN)

Jets forward Mark Scheifele discusses the growing rivalry with the Leafs and explains why beating Toronto always makes the win feel a little more special, ...

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Image courtesy of "Maple Leafs Hot Stove"

In leaving Kyle Dubas unsigned, Brendan Shanahan is wisely -- and ... (Maple Leafs Hot Stove)

In Kyle Dubas' season-opening press conference, the Maple Leafs GM announced that President Brendan Shanahan told him he would not be receiving an extension ...

If the conversation shifts to the Leafs entirely cleaning house from Shanahan on down, this would be a scary proposition. Even if the goal became to shake up the core in some capacity, the suggestion that they would automatically be fleeced in any trade is a bizarre assumption. Should the worst-case scenario happen – another first-round exit – it would be fairly justifiable for Shanahan to determine that Dubas has generally done a good job but that a new voice and fresh set of eyes are needed to get the team to the next level. I don’t know how legitimate of a concern this is, but I would imagine Shanahan also has relationships with the players and their agents. The team’s core is already under contract and pretty well the entire bottom half of the forward group is due up for a new contract. They ran back the nucleus of a team that just finished in the top five in the league, and nobody was expecting them to become a poor regular-season squad all of a sudden. He is trying to figure out how to win in the playoffs and ultimately win a championship. The team’s regular-season success is probably somewhat taken for granted, and they have been in the toughest division in the league (in terms of elite teams at the top) for pretty well Dubas’ entire tenure save for the Canadian division season. If the Leafs won it all this season, would he not want to create a dynasty with a core he has taken it on the chin defending for years now, one that’s already under contract through next season? Prior to the season before, [he was a guest on the Ray and Dregs podcast](https://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/ray-dregs-season-2-episode-5-maple-leafs-president-brendan-shanahan-1.1599593). We met at the end of the summer and kind of went through the way the year was going to go. [Leafs](https://mapleleafshotstove.com/) hockey, and unlike Dubas, he is under contract until the summer of 2025.

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