The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Ben Danford with the 31st pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, despite the fact that he wasn’t necessarily a household name at the time. The reality was that he filled an archetype that has been near impossible for the Maple Leafs to come across over the past few decades. A homegrown, right-handed defenceman with good puck-moving skills and elite defensive instincts. While he’s not that guy yet, Danford is showing that there’s much more to his game than what he showed with the Oshawa Generals to start the season.

Danford’s defensive game has remained a staple of his game, but there was a little bit of concern when he went in the opposite direction from an offensive standpoint in his post-draft season. After tallying 33 points in 64 games in 2023-24, he only managed 25 points in 61 games the year after. However, his leadership skills were on display from the beginning, being named captain of the Generals ahead of last season and doing his best to lead one of the worst teams in the league.

It started the same way for the Generals in 2025-26, and this time, they got a head start on the firesale. Just a few weeks ago, Danford along with fellow defenceman Zack Sandhu were traded to the Brantford Bulldogs, who are in a much better position to contend and have more to choose from for NHL prospects. The Bulldogs have gone 4-0-1 in five games since Danford’s arrival, with the Maple Leafs prospect contributing six assists in those five games, which is leaps and bounds ahead of what he was bringing to the table in Oshawa.

The contrast between Danford’s performance with the Generals and with the Bulldogs tells a story of how hard it is to produce on a bad team versus a good team. The Generals are second-last in the OHL at the time of filing with a record of 5-14-0. The Bulldogs? First place in the OHL and still yet to lose in regulation as they approach their 20th regular season game (15-0-4). Danford will turn 20 in February, and it’s essentially a given that he’ll start next season with the Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League (AHL), so he’s set up very nicely to shoot for a Memorial Cup in his last year of Junior hockey.

Here are some other notes from around the Maple Leafs’ prospect pool.