The Ottawa Senators are a team I’ve come to dread seeing on the Maple Leafs’ schedule. They shutout the Leafs earlier this season. The Senators won three of four games last season against the Leafs. And while the Senators are many years into their rebuild/extended playoff absence that may or may not end this year, they’ve managed to build a team that plays incredibly well against Toronto or at least is particularly fired up for the matchup.

Craig Berube has stated previously he likes a heavier lineup for these types of game and that probably makes it worth started off talking about Reaves when it comes to my collection of scattered thoughts this week:

Maybe the players on the ice and the coaches filling out the lineup card need to take note from the Scotiabank Arena crowd and realize that staged fights don’t matter. This isn’t an attempt to condemn fighting in hockey. I still firmly believe that a fired up response to an action on the ice resulting in dropped gloves has a place. Even staged fights can be a fun little side quest in a three hour night at the rink, but admittedly there is no reason to value Reaves’ contribution any more than fishing has an impact on the main storyline in Skyrim (I’d mention a more recent game but I’m old af.)

Reaves’ fight really underlined the pointlessness of having him in the lineup. The Leafs went on to get pummeled 5-1, and with all due respect that was because of the disinterest from the Leafs players on the ice not fans failing to hoot and/or holler for Reaves’ first fight of the year.

There’s no storied rivalry between the Blue Jackets and the Leafs. There is no score that needed to be settled from the last get together that Mattieu Oliver needed to answer for. It was just a perplexing situation where Reaves was on the ice in the first two minutes of the game for an offensive zone draw that would have been a great chance to establish offence instead of having a mildly entertaining exchange of blows sandwiched between extended periods of jersey grabbing.

While the arena certainly didn’t go nuts, it seemed that effort was appreciated and politely acknowledging that he tried and then getting back to caring about the game at hand makes sense. The fight didn’t have a positive or negative impact on the outcome of the game. It just happened. Maybe now that the fight has happened and Reaves’ impact when fighting has been seen as inconsequential as when he doesn’t, the Leafs might feel more comfortable dressing a more versatile player in the 12th forward spot on a regular basis.

If your hope was that Dennis Hildeby was going to jump into the NHL scene and immediately start pushing for stealing the starter’s role, this season has been bad news. Hildeby hasn’t had the Carey Price or Henrik Lundqvist start to his career. His start has been far more ordinary and that isn’t necessarily a kiss of death for him, it just emphasizes that his path is going to be far more typical of a professional hockey goaltender.

At 23 years old it’s not unreasonable that the Leafs wanted to give Dennis a look. His numbers in Sweden were incredible, his initial season in the AHL was encouraging, and with injuries to Stolarz and Woll, coupled with the underwhelming results from Matt Murray, his appearance in the NHL seemed welcomed and necessary.

Now, a few games in and it is becoming clear that Hildeby isn’t quite there yet, the rough outings from Matt Murray are probably preferrable from continuing to put expectations on Hildeby that he isn’t ready to meet.

The NHL is littered with goaltenders who had a rough start to their NHL career and rebounded with respectable resumes. Of course, you can also point to plenty of goaltenders who were never able to read the play and position themselves fast enough to be effective at the NHL level. Hildeby’s first taste of the NHL shows the work that needs to be done and that it isn’t something that will be fixed by next game, but with a focused effort, he could get there in the next couple of years.

The Leafs made a good call by giving Woll a little bit of rest and even if Stolarz isn’t ready to return prior to the Four Nations break, it is unlikely the Leafs would need to consider another starter more than once over the next few weeks as the schedule is fairly manageable. It also made sense to give Hildeby a look against a not great team that he struggled against at the beginning of the year to see if the issues are the same. They are.

At this point the Leafs organization is probably better off with Hildeby and Akhtyamov developing and competing against each other on the Marlies and taking their lumps with Matt Murray as the third string NHL option.

There could still be something there with Hildeby, he’ll just be a project.

Brad Treliving has had a knack for trade deadlines with very little accomplished. You can point to that one season in Calgary with the acquisition of Tyler Toffoli that showed the Flames were serious about their chances (and that didn’t go well), but through the Flames being middle of the road, Treliving still feeling out the Leafs last season, and an outdated Brian Burke philosophy about the trade deadline being when GMs make their biggest mistakes, counting on Treliving swinging for the fences is asking a lot. That’s why it seems like considering a few depth targets would make sense for the Leafs and Chicago might have that guy.

Ryan Donato is a $2M AAV utility forward that checks a lot of boxes for the Leafs. For one, he doesn’t cost a lot and is a low commitment as a pending UFA. He has also played up higher in the Blackhawks lineup this year and his 14 goals and 13 assists making it so he is outscoring a lot of the premium options at centre. It looks like career highs for points and goals will happen easily this year but Donato has been a regular bottom six offensive producer throughout his career.

Donato’s on-ice differentials reflect what it is like to play on the Chicago Blackhawks in 2025 and require a grain of salt as a result. Similarly, his offence might just be a matter of someone having to score at some point for the team and Donato has done that particularly because of the amount of time he’s seen with Taylor Hall and Connor Bedard. There is value in being the right fit to complement great players and Donato has done that and could make him an asset for the Leafs as they look to spread their talent across three, if not four lines.

Donato has spent some time at centre but like a lot of other Leafs options that is not necessarily the best landing spot for him. He’s best on the wing and with his willingness to hit, he’d mirror a lot of what is already working for the Leafs with Bobby McMann, Matthew Knies, and at times Max Pacioretty. That consistent approach might also be a benefit to the Leafs. He’d also represent another second unit powerplay option.

While Donato might not be a perfect fit, he does seem like he’d be a good player. And while I don’t doubt that Chicago does want him back based on him working well with Connor Bedard, they might be comfortable with Ryan stepping away for a couple of months and take their chances on signing him on the open market in the summer instead.

Depending on how the trade market shakes out, Donato could be an interesting option if the Leafs aren’t pushing all their chips in.