Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!
Well, losing Joe Woll to injury, and after a disappointing loss to the Canadiens, Dennis Hildeby made his NHL debut on night two of a back to back road trip.
Dennis Hildeby rookie lap pic.twitter.com/BzY1yI7Stv
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 10, 2024
But he stood strong and the Maple Leafs finally scored some goals this season and defeated the Devils 4-2!
Hildeby says post-game that he didn't call his family to tell them that he was playing.
— Kevin Papetti (@KPapetti) October 11, 2024
He told them via text because he thought it would be too emotional and mess with his head.
The big news though is the NCAA and CHL are getting closer and closer to having a deal worked out that would give the CHL players NCAA eligibility!
This interview with USHL Commissioner Glenn Heffernan on Morning Cuppa Hockey is excellent. Confirms talks with the CHL about working together.
— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) October 10, 2024
There's a longer post in here, but it would benefit CHL players to use their education packages are a wider variety of schools, the NCAA would be able to take advantage of another top tier development league to get better players, and the NHL teams would have other options to work with drafted players.
The downside is some players will lose out on NCAA opportunities, being pushed aside by CHLers, Canadian Universities would lose out on former CHLers, and NHL teams could have to wait a few more years to get players out of the NCAA.
But, I think for the players in the CHL the good outweighs the bad. They could attend CHL camps without losing eligibility, they could jump in as emergency players if needed, and again, get top schooling for free.
We'll see how this goes....
In other news..
Former Maple Leaf Jeff O'Niell had a little incident during Overdrive on TSN last night.
"My teeth just flew out.. you have to pick those up off the floor." 🤣
— OverDrive (@OverDrive1050) October 10, 2024
An iconic moment with O-Dog's jibs flying out of his mouth and landing on the floor in the studio with Hayes and Al's Brother. pic.twitter.com/115rttXDLI
Going back to the junior hockey discussions of a couple hundred words ago, the Brantford Bulldogs are ready to settle down permanently in their new home with a new junior hockey sized arena being approved by city council.

Beloved Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston is returning to Toronto, but not to join the Blue Jays. He's becoming a Maple Leaf!

The baseball ones, though.
Macklin Celebrini scored his first NHL goal, Evgeni Malkin hit 800 NHL assists, @utahhockeyclub won their second-ever game and we had the second straight three-goal, third-period comeback win. These were just a few #NHLStats from Thursday.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 11, 2024
See them all: https://t.co/mrFdRWRhPM pic.twitter.com/8wwpTzpGBH
Enjoy your day everyone!
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