Bobrovsky is also buoyed by the presence of a couple of familiar faces within the Toronto organization in goalie Anthony Stolarz and fitness guru Andy O\u2019Brien. In the case of Stolarz, he was Bobrovsky\u2019s backup during the Panthers\u2019 Cup-winning season of 2023-24.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to have him again, great to have a reunion with him again,\u201d he said of Stolarz. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, and we look forward to working together to support each other and give this team a chance to win every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, who was hired during the offseason to become the Maple Leafs vice president of sport performance, worked extensively with Bobrovsky while both were with the Panthers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a big pro,\u201d Bobrovsky said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to have him here. He helped a lot to build the process, especially on ice in Florida, and he\u2019s going to do a great job here as well. So it\u2019s a great addition to this club, and he\u2019s going to make this club even more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, for that matter, should Raddysh and Paul, although, being southern Ontario natives, both have needed far less time to assimilate into their new surroundings than Bobrovsky.<\/p>\n
For these two, they are coming home.<\/p>\n
Raddysh was acquired in a sign-and-trade with the Lightning\u00a0on June 19\u00a0that saw him agree to an eight-year deal that will expire when he is 38 years old. The Caledon, Ontario native used to attend Maple Leafs games with his late father Dwayne, who was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in May 2024 and passed away in March.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s sunk in yet,\u201d Raddysh said Monday of being a Maple Leaf. \u201cI think once I play that first game and get on the ice, I think it will sink in a little bit. But for now,\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m just trying to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raddysh said he was on a flight back from Newfoundland when he learned that Paul, his former Tampa teammate, had been acquired by Toronto on July 1 for goalie\u00a0Dennis Hildeby, a fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called him right away when we landed,\u201d said Raddysh, who had 70 points (22 goals, 48 assists) in 73 games with the Lightning last season. \u201cWe\u2019re excited. It\u2019s great to have someone to lean on.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Paul, a Mississauga native, it\u2019s a homecoming that remains surreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already been talking with my family about just how crazy it is \u2026 going to games when I was younger, taking the GO Train, scalping tickets, heading up to the nosebleeds,\u201d the 31-year-old forward said, adding that \u201chaving that Leaf jersey on and playing in front of everyone will be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobrovsky is also buoyed by the presence of a couple of familiar faces within the Toronto organization in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-896113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}