T-minus 72 days until puck drop on the 2025-26 NHL regular season.
Honestly, it’s hard to believe that July’s almost over. The dog days of summer are nearly upon us.
With that in mind, we kicked off the latest summer edition of Leafs Morning Take by giving our thoughts on Happy Gilmore 2. After years of anticipation, the sequel finally came out. And now, social media’s ablaze with reviews and commentary.
Brought to you by GRETA BAR YYZ, we got into some Ben Danford talk. Over the weekend, the Leafs prospect was invited to Hockey Canada’s summer showcase in Minnesota as the organization starts to prepare for December’s World Junior tournament. All in all, you would think making Team Canada would be high atop the list of goals next season for Toronto’s 2024 first rounder. Danford’s progressing very well, and this would be a significant step in the right direction. Furthermore, we debated whether he’ll ever play a game for the Leafs. In terms of assets, they don’t have much to deal, and if they want to make a pendulum swinging deal, unfortunately, Danford may have to be included. Any way you slice it, it feels like they did well with the Danford pick —at least thus far. We’ve had him on Leafs Morning Take a few times. He’s a good kid.
After that, we did another list segment. This time, we talked intriguing Maple Leafs. The guys we’ll be watching closest. For breakout potential, bounce backs, or big decisions looming. We had a few of the same names, but also differed on a couple guys, too. That said, the No. 1 guy on both lists was Auston Matthews. He’s everything to this team. Can he put last season’s injury plagued campaign in the rearview mirror? How will he do without Mitch Marner? Can he return to Hart Trophy contender form? If the Leafs are going to do anything in the 2025-26, they will need their captain at his very best.
At any rate, we’ll be back on Wednesday at 11 AM ET for another summer edition of Leafs Morning Take.
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