Ben Danford is going a bit further away than the Maple Leafs’ back yard, but to a potentially better junior team to continue his NHL path.
On Thursday, the Oshawa Generals traded Toronto’s first-round pick in 2024 to the Brantford Bulldogs, with fellow defenceman Zackary Sandhu. Danford was a late camp cut of the Leafs. He had two long playoff runs with the Generals, but his team has been weakened by graduation to a degree and is near the bottom of the OHL standings.
Brantford, which beat Oshawa on the road 4-1 Sunday with Danford getting an assist, leads the league with a record of 11-0. The trade cost the Bulldogs in players and draft picks; defencemen Lucas Moore, Luca Diplacido and left winger Aiden O’Donnell and nine draft picks, including three second-rounders and three third-rounders.
“We’ve seen both players a ton over the past two seasons – through countless battles and a full playoff series – and we know firsthand the impact they can have,” Bulldogs general manager Spencer Hyman said in a release. “Both Ben and Zach have been to back-to-back OHL finals (where they lost to Easton Cowan’s London Knights), they bring with them a championship mindset and an understanding of what it takes to win.”
Danford was Oshawa’s captain, picked 31st overall by Toronto, which signed him to an entry level contract. The 6-foot-2 Danford, from Belleville, has 11 goals and 72 assists in 196 OHL games to augment his shutdown game.
Danford is the only first-round defenceman retained by the club other than Morgan Rielly (2012). Toronto traded Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren after they had broken in.
“Ben is a leader and one of the premier defencemen in the entire CHL,” Hyman added. “Zach is a hard-nosed, intelligent defender who plays with poise and intensity. These are two players we targeted immediately, and their addition gives our blue line the ability to play bigger, heavier and adapt to any style required to win hockey games.”
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