During a disappointing Saturday night 5-3 loss against their divisional rivals, the Boston Bruins, a silver lining of hope emerged in the form of Leafs' backup goaltender, Dennis Hildeby.
On Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena, Hildeby started the game as the Leafs' backup, but after Boston exploded for two quick second-period goals to take a 4-2 lead, this 24-year-old at 4:41 of the second period was pressed into action and made a statement by stopping 19 of 20 shots in an eventual 5-3 Bruins win.
Dennis Hildeby did all he could against Boston Bruins
Hildeby, who was drafted by the Leafs in 2022, 122nd overall, was recently called up from their American League farm club, the Toronto Marlies. Before getting called up, Hildeby had gone 2-2-1 with an .890 save percentage.
This isn't the first time Hildeby has been called up. The only other time this season came back on October 25th, when he backed up Cayden Primeau make 23 saves during a 4-3 OT Leafs win against the Buffalo Sabres.
Hildeby got this recent call-up against Boston a day after Toronto management put Primeau on waivers and assigned regular backup Joseph Woll to the Marlies on a conditional stint.
Besides making a statement with Saturday night's solid relief appearance against Boston, Hildeby also turned heads during pre-season last September by posting a .920 save percentage during three pre-season games.
In early September, Hildeby committed to the Leafs by agreeing to a three-year contract extension worth $2.53 million. The way this contract is structured is that the first two years are two-way deals with the third and final year being one-way.
Goaltending has been a hot topic this season among Leafs fans. Besides Stolarz, there is great concern over the backup position, where, as mentioned, Primeau was put on waivers and Woll recently returned from a leave of absence but at the same tie hasn't played a meaningful NHL game since last spring.
Heading into Saturday night's game against the Bruins, Toronto was entering a busy part of the scheule which would see them play five games in eight nights.
Obviously, they will need some big games from their back-up, and if Hildeby could continue playing like he did in relief against the Bruins, then the Leafs will be in solid shape.
Leafs coach Craig Berube hasn’t tipped his hand to the media about whether Hildeby will get the start on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes.