The Toronto Maple Leafs have a few interesting prospects but one that has caught the eye of both fans and management alike is defenseman Ben Danford. And after a slow start with the OHL's Oshawa Generals this season, it looks like he will be moving to one of the best teams in junior hockey, according to reports.
#BREAKING: The Brantford Bulldogs are acquiring #LeafsForever prospect Ben Danford and Zackary Sandhu from the Oshawa #Generals in exchange for Aiden O’Donnell, Lucas Moore and draft picks.
— OHLScoops (@ohl_scoops) October 30, 2025
Danford is heading into his final OHL season and instead of being stuck on a struggling Generals team that is 5-10-0-0 to start their season, he has been moved up to the very best team in the league. The Brantford Bulldogs are loading up after starting their season with a 11-0-2-1 record -- they have not lost in regulation through their first 14 games and own the OHL's best .893 point percentage.
Additionally, the Bulldogs have scored the most goals in the league so far this season, with 75, while also allowing the fourth-fewest with just 47 goals allowed.
Danford will easily supply that blue line with even more stability while being one of the most physical defenders in the OHL. For his final year of junior hockey, that's not a bad situation to be in whatsoever. Play on a good team with fellow top prospects like Seattle Kraken 2025 first-rounder Jake O'Brien, and contend for a J. Ross Robertson Cup and potential Memorial Cup instead of wallowing in Oshawa.
The 19-year-old right-handed defenseman was a first-round pick of the Maple Leafs in the 2024 NHL Draft, going 31st overall. And last season, while captaining the Oshawa Generals, scored five goals and 25 points from the blue line in 61 games. He also earned a total of 68 penalty minutes and earned a plus-5 rating.
For more familiarity as to what the Maple Leafs have in Danford, we turn to Elite Prospects as they call the prospect a smart defender.
"Ben Danford thinks the game in a more advanced way than most. He knows how to defend in-zone and how to move the puck up the ice," the Elite Prospects 2024 NHL Draft Guide reads. "And he always plays the opposition physically. He closes his gap before the blue line, pressures the opposition all over the zone, and shows a lot of poise on retrieval, spinning off forecheckers, and attracting them before passing."