The Maple Leafs May Not Need Ben Danford Just Yet

Something funny happens with young defencemen in Toronto. We see a prospect have a good camp or a good preseason game, and immediately start wondering when he’ll be wearing the blue and white for real. Ben Danford is getting some of that treatment right now. And maybe that’s not entirely wrong. But there’s another way to look at this.

Maybe the Maple Leafs don’t actually need Danford to make the team right now.

One interesting comment on a recent post about Danford suggested the Maple Leafs may already see another year in the AHL as the best path for him before they start thinking seriously about putting him into the NHL lineup. That makes sense when you look at how many defencemen Toronto has brought into the picture.

Emil Andrae is here. Troy Stecher is in the mix. Morgan Reilly is still around. There’s also been some attention paid to players such as Nick Blankenburg. Suddenly, Danford's path isn't as wide open as it looked a few months ago. But here’s the part I keep coming back to.

That might actually be a good thing. The Maple Leafs have had years when injuries hit the defence and the organization was suddenly pulling every available defenceman into an NHL uniform. One reader remembered a season when Toronto went through so many injuries that it seemed as if every defenceman who could play an NHL game eventually got called up.

Having too many blueliners is not a bad problem to have if you’ve built the organization well.

Danford doesn’t have to be the seventh defenceman in October to be important to the Maple Leafs. He can spend time in the AHL, play big minutes, make mistakes, learn from them and continue developing. Then, if Toronto gets hit by injuries — and, as we all know, it will — he’s there.

The same goes for William Villeneuve, although his situation is obviously different because of his ACL injury and the lengthy recovery ahead. His absence simply makes organizational depth more important. And that’s really the bigger story here.

We sometimes judge a team’s defensive depth by asking, “Who are the six guys?” I’m starting to think the better question is, “Who are the next six?” That’s where Danford becomes interesting.

Danford doesn’t have to be ready right out of the gate.

Maybe he isn’t supposed to be the answer today. Maybe the smart move is to let him become part of the answer later. There’s nothing very exciting about that. No big announcement. No dramatic rookie story. Just a young defenceman playing hockey, getting better and waiting his turn.

For a team that has learned the hard way how quickly defensive depth can disappear, that might be exactly the way it should work.