Ben Danford knows he’s at a crossroads.

The new NHL CBA extension gives teams the option to send one 19-year-old CHL player up to the AHL per season, breaking the longstanding rule that a CHL player must play four seasons or be 20 years old to move to pro hockey. Ushering the best junior players into the pro level quicker and benefiting their own personal development is the goal. While it’s unlikely this landscape-altering move occurs this upcoming season, an agreement between the two leagues seems bound to happen.

Few would have benefited from the rule change occurring this year quite as much as the Maple Leafs’ top defence prospect.

The 2024 first-round pick captained the Oshawa Generals to a second straight OHL final last season, displaying pro-ready shutdown habits and physicality. While he missed last year’s Leafs rookie tournament with a concussion, there were times throughout his two games during the Prospect Showdown this past weekend that Danford looked like one of the best players on the ice. He was effective in transition and read the opposition well. His poise with the puck, decision-making ability and defensive traits were light-years ahead of some of his peers.

Danford’s showing brought his future into focus. It was hard not to look at his Prospect Showdown performance and upcoming season destinations and wonder: What does the 19-year-old right-shot defender have to do to become a Leaf? And what does he have to gain from another year in junior hockey?

“If it ever did happen this year and if I put myself in a good spot this training camp and showed that I could play good minutes at the AHL level, that’d be something that would help me out: playing against men and being a year ahead in my development,” Danford said of theoretically moving to the AHL this season. “But at the same time, junior’s a different thing too, because I go back to junior and I’m going to play a lot of minutes.”

The Maple Leafs will need Danford to not just play a lot but also add new tools to his game. It’s become clear the Leafs could need their top young defender soon enough, and how Danford plays this season could reveal plenty about his Leafs future.

The Leafs enter the 2025-26 season with no room for movement or debate on their blue line. They’re set, and happy, with the same top six that ended last season. And they should be: There’s a ton of playoff experience through most of the veteran group.

But while the Leafs management won’t call anything about their dependable top six a gamble, there is a gamble in trotting out an aging defence that wants to play a heavy, hard style.

Four of the team’s top six are over 30. Brandon Carlo (28) and Simon Benoit (26) round things out. With an aging blue line that relies on physicality, the threat of injuries or quick decline might not be far behind. TJ Brodie went from being a top-pair, trusted Leafs defender to a playoff healthy scratch in two seasons after turning 30.

That’s where Danford comes in.

It’s possible Noah Chadwick or John Prokop enjoy a cup of Americano in a Leafs uniform over the next two seasons. But otherwise, Danford is the only Leafs defence prospect who right now — acknowledging that prospects develop in different ways and things happen! — seems likely to enjoy a lengthy NHL career. NHL teams often have to pony up for smart, young right-shot defenders. And the Leafs are light on assets as it is.

To ensure there is support for an older blue line, the Leafs are betting big on Danford becoming pro-ready sooner rather than later. That’s why this season is crucial for him to add necessary tools to his game and continue his upward trajectory.

Danford will all but surely return to the Oshawa Generals. The Leafs need him to do two things: dominate with his defensive prowess and add more offence to his game.

He began the preparation for this season with a month in Toronto skating at the Leafs’ facility. That suggests the Leafs remain high on him and have every intention of ushering him into their program when they can. He spent most of that time alongside two pillars of the Leafs’ back end: Chris Tanev and Morgan Rielly.

The Leafs are encouraging Ben Danford to model his game after current blueline stalwart Chris Tanev. (Claus Andersen / Getty Images)

The Leafs are grooming Danford for an NHL job. They see a player who can execute his on-ice vision under Brad Treliving and Craig Berube. They want Danford to play physical hockey and use his smooth skating and vision to execute clean breakouts. To play on a Berube blue line, a young defenceman has to minimize the errors in his own end. Risk aversion is a serious part of the blueprint.

What Danford took away from working with Tanev and Rielly: the importance of the fundamentals, and becoming reliable and trusted instead of flashy and risky.

“I’ve been looking up to them for years now, being a Leafs fan. To be on the ice with them now and to learn off them, they’re all great human beings and people that I think I can really look up to and get tips and tricks off of,” Danford said.

Both Danford and the Leafs have never run from the fact that Tanev is the model for Danford. Routinely smart, durable, responsible and able to absorb pressure in his own end, Tanev is the kind of top-pair defender every NHL team covets. Crucially, Tanev himself evolved from logging bottom-pair ice tie in his first two NHL seasons (on very good Vancouver Canucks teams) into a minute-muncher in his mid-30s. What Danford is now might not be who he becomes later. The Leafs want Danford to soak up all the intel he can.

“I thought Danford was really good on the back end,” Marlies head coach John Gruden said during the rookie tournament. “He did a really good job closing quickly and not giving time and space. He played physically. He was outstanding.”

Listening to Danford assess his two games in the Prospect Showdown, there was a professional tone to everything he said.

“The first 60 minutes I was really strong. Made some good passes, tried to keep it simple. (During the second game) I thought I could have kept it a little more simple at times. That one goal is on me. I need to make a better decision there,” Danford said after the Leafs’ 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens prospects.

In the season after Easton Cowan was drafted, he hit remarkable heights offensively and was named the OHL MVP. That still wasn’t enough to crack the Leafs roster (and it might not be this year, either). He knew what he was capable of offensively, but his off-puck work had to come around. Cowan earned more praise and interest from the coaching staff by becoming more aware of what he might be at the NHL level. He managed pucks more responsibly. He upped his effort and attention to detail on the forecheck and defensively.

Danford will have to use his vision and clean puck movement to put his forwards in more dangerous spots close to goal. Danford has to continue to shift his mindset, away from being defence-only defender and towards an all-round defender. He has a decent shot and should continue to up the power he uses from the blue line.

And so the Leafs won’t just be looking for Danford to tick his boxes the way they will with the dozens of other prospects who featured this past weekend. Beginning with training camp this week, Danford is no longer a project but a piece the Leafs could bank on for sustainable success on their back end.

“This year, it’s a big year for me,” Danford said. “It’s my last year of junior. I want to go back and work on every aspect of the game.”

(Top photo: Michael Miller / ISI Photos / Getty Images)