Dennis Hildeby stood towering above a group of reporters. His eyes widened and he arched his back while speaking in English, a language he doesn’t often use.
It was the 6-foot-5.5 goaltender’s first media availability as a Maple Leaf prospect after the team traded their fourth-round
NHL Draft pick in 2023 to land Hildeby in the fourth round (No. 122) in 2022. And while other prospects at Leafs development camp this week appeared reticent or remarkably anxious in front of the cameras, Hildeby projected the kind of calming confidence that some of the best goalies in the world have in spades.
“You have to like the pressure, being a goalie,” said Hildeby in a slow, monotone voice.
And for Hildeby, the pressure will only continue. The Leafs didn’t waste any time locking up Hildeby to a three-year, entry-level contract just five days after he was drafted. He’s now stepping into an organization that has
struggled to draft and develop goalies as of late.
“(Jon Elkin, head of the Leafs’ goaltender evaluation and development) through the case that he built for him, made us be very,
very passionate about being able to come away from the draft with him,” said
Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas of Hildeby after the draft.
Kyle Dubas. (Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press via AP)
And if his development path and recent results are any indication, there is very early reason to believe in that passion, and that what Hildeby has done could help his chances of becoming a Leaf down the road.
Maciej Szwoch was growing worried.
The Farjestad goalie coach was sitting alongside the rest of his SHL team making the long trek north into tiny Timra, a town of just over 10,000 in central Sweden. Szwoch knew what not everyone on the SHL team at the time knew: Adam Werner, the team’s starting goalie, was suffering from a worsening illness and likely wouldn’t be fit to play, leaving them with just one goalie over 500 kilometres away from home.
Szwoch somewhat sheepishly asked the team they’d be playing against, Timra IK, if they could borrow a junior goalie from their ranks for the morning skate and, if absolutely necessary, as a backup for that evening’s game.
That’s when Szwoch was introduced to Hildeby. Szwoch nodded in both surprise and approval, not having seen many goalies that looked like him before.
Standing close to the size he is now, he towered above many of his teammates. And if that morning skate was any indication, Hildeby still had the potential to eventually move as accurately as the pro player he was replacing.
Farjestad’s backup goalie ended up arriving just in time for the game, but Hildeby still left a “
huge impression” on Szwoch.
Szwoch saw a goalie whose mechanics, size and upside, he was happy to admit, superseded the awful numbers he was putting up in Sweden’s under-20 league. There was more than meets the eye. Szwoch promised himself he’d keep an eye on the young goalie.
He did. But the results weren’t pretty. Timra’s junior team was one of the worst in Sweden’s under-20 league during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, consistently allowing more goals than most other teams. Hildeby’s numbers were reflective of that. In those two seasons, in which Hildeby was eligible for the NHL Draft, he posted an .873 and .911 save percentage, respectively.
The numbers, in part, likely scared off many NHL teams from drafting Hildeby.
“It’s not an easy thing, to pick a goalie with bad numbers,” said Szwoch.
Nor is it an easy thing to convince a group of people in management that the goalie should be signed. But Szwoch, who doubles as a goaltending consultant for the
Detroit Red Wings, was convinced. He saw a goalie whose athleticism wasn’t always common for a goalie of his size, one who could extend to make the kind of daring saves his peers couldn’t.
“When we watched all of his games, we’d see Timra losing, like, 8-2. When in reality, it should have been 14-2, because (Hildeby) was just lights out,” said Szwoch.
There’s something special about this kid, he’d tell people like former Maple Leaf Rickard Wallin, Farjestad’s general manager. Hildeby was technically skilled, sure, but Szwoch saw untapped potential.
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