Congratulations are in order for Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Simon Benoit and longtime girlfriend Alice Desaulniers. On Thursday, the Maple Leafs media relations account on X (formerly Twitter) announced that the Laval, Que. native would be absent from practice following the birth of his first child. No further details were given.

As the Toronto Maple Leafs start settling into life under Craig Berube over the next few weeks, they will soon learn that their new head coach arrives with two non-negotiables for players on his roster.

Oh baby” as Bob Cole would have said, what a day for Simon Benoit. The bleary-eyed new father reported for his first day of on-ice practice with the Maple Leafs on Friday, about 36 hours after helping partner Alice with the birth of their first child.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Simon Benoit is missing from the first day of training camp. But it's for a very good reason. The Leafs' PR team