Maple Leafs Have Interesting Connection to Rookie Goaltender Who Stood on his Head Saturday

While the Toronto Maple Leafs already know who their most likely first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs opponent will be, there are still regular season games left to play.

Saturday night's contest renewed the longtime rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens, with the Leafs needing to get creative with their roster due to injuries on the blueline.

It turns out Toronto had no issue outplaying and outshooting the Habs, but could not get a puck past Canadiens rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes in regulation. He stopped 34 shots before letting one in from
Mitch Marner in overtime, giving the Maple Leafs the 1-0 victory.

As it turns out, Toronto passed over Dobes in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft a few times before he finally went 136th overall right in front of them.

With the 137th pick, the Maple Leafs selected Dmitry Ovchinnikov. He played a total of 32 games with the Toronto Marlies before going back to his home country.

Dobes's best save of the game came with just under five minutes in the third period, when he absolutely robbed Nicholas Robertson, whose attitude shift under Craig Berube has been turning heads.

The 2024-25 season is the first in the NHL for the 23-year-old Dobes. The native of Czechia had spent the previous two seasons exclusively with the Laval Rocket of the AHL, and the two years before that with Ohio State Buckeyes.