The Toronto Maple Leafs held a Zoom media availability with Darren Raddysh on Monday. The Toronto Marlies held a championship rally at Real Sports Bar & Grill.
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Darren Raddysh grew up a Leafs fan and has fond memories of attending games at Scotiabank Arena with his father, who passed away in March after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
“Just seeing the smile he had on his face when we’d go to the games and how much joy it brought to me and my brother [fellow NHLer Taylor], it’s something that I cherished and I know my brother did as well,” the 30-year-old defenceman said. “And just to be able to play here every night, it’s definitely one of his dreams and I’m happy that I can make that happen for him.”
Raddysh signed an eight-year, $68-million deal with the Leafs on Friday as part of a sign-and-trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“It means the world,” the Toronto native said. “A lot of friends and family have already texted me and are excited and I’m super excited as well to be joining the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
Raddysh called the decision to join his hometown team “a no-brainer” while reflecting on his time in the Toronto Marlboros minor hockey system.
“Playing in Toronto is something you always dreamed of as a kid and especially playing in the GTHL,” he said. “You’re always watching the Leaf games on Saturday nights and, yeah, everyone pretty much always wants to come back here and it’s super exciting to get that opportunity.”
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Raddysh is coming off a career year that saw him score 22 goals and pile up 70 points in 73 games with the Lightning. That’s up from his previous career highs of six goals and 37 points.
It seemed like a good fit with Tampa Bay. So, why is he switching sides in the Atlantic Division rivalry after five years in the Lightning organization?
“Playing in Tampa, it was awesome,” Raddysh said. “There’s a lot of great guys there and it holds a special place in my heart. I think it came down to just business. I can’t have anything bad to say about the organization and [general manager] Julien [BriseBois]. I think they wanted to go in a different direction than we wanted to and, ultimately, it led to Toronto.”
Raddysh is getting a monster raise after playing for $975,000 last year.
Toronto believes the undrafted late-blooming, right-shot rearguard can continue his ascent north of the border.
Raddysh points to an increase in playing time in explaining his offensive explosion. He logged 22:44 per game last season. His previous career high was 19:06.
“I was in and out of the lineup [in previous years],” he said. “When I was playing, I was playing as the seventh defenceman. And just getting the opportunity to play on power play and show my stuff and show what I can do is probably one of the biggest things for this last year.”
With Lightning captain Victor Hedman limited to 33 games, Raddysh quarterbacked Tampa’s top unit and led all NHL defencemen with 10 power-play goals. But Leafs general manager John Chayka was quick to highlight his well-rounded play during a media availability last week.
“I think I’m a good two-way defenceman,” Raddysh said. “I like to take pride in my own end first. I like to take pride in not getting scored on and making sure we’re doing the right things and playing the right way and the offence will come after that. There’s a lot of things to my game that contribute to being a two-way player and I think that’s something that I like to do the most.”
Raddysh posted a plus-21 mark last season, which ranked 17th among all NHL blueliners.
Chayka has been tracking Raddysh since his days with the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League. Back then Chayka worked with the Arizona Coyotes, who drafted Otters centre Dylan Strome third overall in 2015. Raddysh recalled seeing Chayka at Erie practices.
“He’s an analytics guy and that’s something that I like to pride myself in too is making sure you’re doing all the right things,” Raddysh said. “And I believe that if you do that, good things will come. I think he sees [it] the same way. He’s excited about this team, he’s excited to get the team back to where it needs to be. There’s a lot of good moving pieces coming and it’s an exciting time.”
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The Marlies celebrated their Calder Cup championship with a rally at Real Sports Bar & Grill on Monday.
Leafs assistant general manager Ryan Hardy, who oversees the team’s minor-league operations, spoke emotionally about how the team that finished 15th in the regular season went on a magical run to the title.
“To find a level of love and to find the greatness in a bunch of underdogs, a bunch of forgotten guys, a bunch of guys that are sometimes disrespected, and to see the great in them, and then to build an ecosystem with families where everyone mattered and where the hockey team was more important than any individual, that is what we sought to do and that is what we did,” he said.
During a speech that stretched longer than 20 minutes, Hardy took time to recognize members of the previous management groups in Toronto.
“Toronto is a funny town,” Hardy noted. “It’s a fickle town, but it’s a great town and it’s a place where hockey matters. But sometimes when people are here and they leave we only highlight some of the negatives and we don’t celebrate the positive so I wanted to thank a few people ... I know you guys like to boo sometimes, but today we’re going to pay respect so I would appreciate it if you didn’t boo and support these people because they have made a great contribution to our club.
“That’s Kyle Dubas, Brad Treliving, Brendan Shanahan, Jason Spezza, Brandon Pridham, Derek Clancey, John Lilley, Jim Paliafito, Tim Speltz, Jon Elkin, Wes Clark, who drafted some of our highest-profile players, Shane Doan and my predecessor Laurence Gilman, so thank you to all those people.”
Fans cheered the list of names.
Hardy also paid tribute to the fans, who supported the team. Sellout crowds of more than 8,000 packed Coca-Cola Coliseum for all three games in Toronto during the Calder Cup Finals.
“This is a hockey city,” Hardy said. “There is no place in the world that hockey matters more. Sometimes a lot gets made about the media coverage or the social media or all these things, but everything has its equal and opposite. So, for all the negative noise, when you have moments like this, and hopefully when the Leafs get it done, the equal and opposite is true and this will be a magical time in this town when it happens. And you can really feel that for these guys as it built throughout the playoffs.”
The Marlies survived a best-of-three play-in series to open their run and ended up winning four elimination games by the end of it.
Hardy believes a similar story can be written by the Leafs.
“So many people love the Leafs and so many people hate the Leafs, but for us and our players, you have to want to be here,” he said. “It takes a certain kind of person, but it’s the most special place there is if and when you can get done.”
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Marlies players coaxed rookie winger Landon Sim to take the microphone near the end of the rally.
“It’s a lot of cameras,” said the 21-year-old, who started the season in the ECHL before emerging as a key playoff contributor. “Usually the funny things I say aren’t meant for the cameras. Coming in as a young rookie, these guys are unbelievable … This is unreal. I’m really nervous in front of the cameras, but (pause) f—king right! Champions!”
Teammates roared in delight.
Sim certainly isn’t shy on the ice. He constantly throws his body around and gets in the face of the opposition. He also scored a key goal in the championship-clinching game.
“He’s got personality,” said Marlies head coach John Gruden. “You gotta have personality to win and you can see he’s got that and he’s a fun guy and his teammates love him. For him, as a rookie, to come in and give us those types of minutes and make that much of an impact, I can guarantee you that teams don’t like playing against him either, that’s something you have to have.”
In April, the Leafs signed Sim to a two-year, entry-level contract, which starts next season.
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Hardy wore a Rodion Amirov Leafs sweater on the ice during the Marlies celebration on Friday night. Amirov, a Leafs first-round pick in 2020, passed away in 2023 at the age of 21 due to a brain tumour.
“It was probably 5 o’clock in the morning in Russia when all that went down,” Hardy noted. “I hope that his parents and his sisters woke up and took a lot of pride that his memory will live here forever.”
The Leafs invited Amirov to spend time around the team during training camp in 2022 and he was introduced as an honorary member of the non-playing roster at the home opener.
“Shanny and Dubie at that time had brought him here with the hope of him getting to play in an exhibition [game] ... and when he got here it was clear the situation was worse,” Hardy recalled. “This kid, they had told him while he was here that his diagnosis was terminal. He kept always referencing God and that God would look after him. He was laying on the training table in the Marlies room the day after and I went in there and I just said, ‘Hey, buddy, how are you doing?’ And in very broken English, he had a smile ear to ear, he said, ‘Good.’
“That’s something that will never leave me, for a kid that life should have been so different for, and who should have been able to live out all of his dreams in this city, to have his life end in that way, way before it needed to, [but] to still have such positivity and such radiant energy.”
During Friday’s celebration, Hardy gave the Amirov sweater to playoff MVP Artur Akhtyamov, who held it up during the team picture at centre ice. Akhtyamov and Amirov were friends, who played together on the Russian national junior team.
“The connection to Arty just tying it all together, it couldn’t have been more perfect,” Hardy said.
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John Tavares recently attended the Ontario Hockey League draft where the Leafs centre announced the first overall pick, Vaughn Kings centre Kane Cloutier, on behalf of the Oshawa Generals.
“It’s a pretty cool moment,” Cloutier said. “I got to spend some time with him after in the suite and really pick his brain.”
It was 21 years ago that the Generals picked Tavares first overall.
“He kept touching on the idea that ‘Pressure is a privilege,’ and that I’ve been doing something right to be here,” Cloutier shared. “He kind of walked me through his path to the NHL and offered some tips and tricks that you could pick up along the way.”
Cloutier is the son of former NHL goalie Dan Cloutier. Why isn’t he a goalie like his old man?
“I tried goalie once back when I lived in Vancouver,” the 16-year-old explained. “I got like one or two shots and that’s when I knew it wasn’t for me. I wanted to be more in the action.”
What did dad think?
“He’s pretty happy that I didn’t fall in his footsteps. He always says that’s the smartest decision of my career.”
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A media availability with Chayka and new head coach Jim Hiller is scheduled for Thursday at the Ford Performance Centre.
