Report: At least two Maple Leafs headed to the World Championship.

Two Maple Leafs are not done playing hockey this summer.

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Report: At least two Maple Leafs headed to the World Championship.
Dom Gagne/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs' season came to a disappointing end earlier this week when the Maple Leafs once again failed to advanced past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For the second time in as many years the Maple Leafs were defeated in a 7 game series that went all 7 games by the Boston Bruins, a team that now has arguably made themselves Toronto's biggest rival on the ice.

For fans of the Maple Leafs it has been a bitter pill to swallow with the fan base having high hopes that the acquisition of a player like John Tavares would help to push them over the top. That is made all the more difficult by the knowledge that they will not be getting another chance to see their team take the ice for meaningful games again until the start of the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season, but there is some good news however. 

For those of you who just can't get enough of your Toronto Maple Leafs there will be an opportunity to see at least some of the organizations top stars playing this summer. We have already been hearing during the week that there had been many international programs that had reached out to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas for permission to speak to to his players regarding the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship tournament, and now it seems that some of those calls have been answered. 

First, in the late hours of Friday night TSN National Hockey League insider Darren Dreger revealed that Toronto Maple Leafs star forward John Tavares has accepted Canada's invitation to go to the World Championship. Tavares will be joined there by fellow Canadian forward Mark Stone who's Las Vegas Golden Knights were also eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Given the level of talent these two bring to the table that is already a very promising sign for the Canadian squad that will be at the World Championship.

Tavares will have to compete against one of his Maple Leaf teammates at the tournament however. According to a report from Expressen Sport out of Sweden, Swedish forward William Nylander has also agreed to represent his country at the tournament. Nylander will be joined by Nashville Predator Mattias Ekholm who like the other players named here has been eliminated from playoff contention.

Maple Leafs' Morgan RiellyAuston Matthews, and Mitch Marner have also all received invitations although Marner is expected to decline that offer while Matthews and Rielly have yet to make an official announcement one way or the other. 

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