With Joseph Woll nonetheless reportedly nursing a lower-body harm, the Toronto Maple Leafs turned to rookie goaltender Dennis Hildeby within the second-half of their back-to-back to open their 2024-25 season after dropping their opener 1-0 to the Montreal Canadiens.
The Maple Leafs appears to be trying to get Woll to 100% earlier than placing him again into the lineup, in order that left a gap for Hildeby to make his first profession NHL begin on Thursday towards the New Jersey Devils on the highway.
The Maple Leafs jumped out to an enormous 3-0 lead simply 14:46 into the sport with targets from Max Pacioretty, Bobby McMann and Seven Lorentz, whereas Hildeby stood tall within the workforce’s crease making 22 saves on 24 photographs to earn his first profession NHL win.
Hildeby is coming off a season the place he performed in 41 video games with a 21-11-7 report within the common season with the AHL Toronto Marlies. That got here with a 2.41 targets towards common (GAA) and .913 save share (SV%).
Whereas Hildeby wasn’t anticipated to start out the season with the Maple Leafs, his first signal of recreation play landed him an enormous win to even the Maple Leafs report up at 1-1-0 by two video games and he might develop into a significant asset to this workforce shifting ahead.
