The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have the best prospect cupboards, but one of their best is defenceman Ben Danford. He was named to Canada’s World Juniors roster and played a prominent role in last night’s tournament opener against Czechia.
Danford played a top-four role
Danford was paired with Kashawn Aitcheson on Canada’s third pair, designed to be a hardnosed shutdown pairing that matches up against the opponent’s top forwards. This perfectly suits Danford’s game as a defensive defenceman, and he was up to the task.
He logged 17:43 TOI which was the fourth most total TOI on the entire Canadian blueline. As well, Danford was trusted to play in high-stakes situations like the final minute of the game when Canada was protecting a narrow one-goal lead.
Though not without his miscues, Danford overall played a solid defensive game and should be a lock to stay in Canada’s lineup for the entire tournament.
Lots of Leafs fans are drawing similarities between Danford and current Leafs defensive dynamo Chris Tanev. Although the games they play aren’t exactly the same, the defensive elements do overlap.
Danford also had one of the best non goal highlights of the night, with this cheeky play to draw an icing call on Czechia.
No rest
Danford will get no rest as Canada plays again tonight against one of their unlikely rivals in international hockey, Latvia.
The top pair of Cameron Reid and Zayne Parekh was not good defensively last night so it’s possible that Canada mixes up the defence pairings to have more of a balanced look.
We might see Danford elevated to play alongside Reid while Aitcheson plays with Parekh, but that remains to be seen.
It was a great opener from Danford and it should be a solid tournament for the Leafs’ youngster.
