FTB: Where'd he go Wednesday?

Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!

Once again I am here on a Wednesday to ponder a Leaf we once knew, and with no games on the schedule, this will do for most of our FTB content.

So come with me back to the summer of 2006, where a week after free agency opened with the Leafs signing Hal Gill and Pavel Kubina, another player joined the blue and white: Bates Battaglia.

A 1994 sixth round pick of the Anaheim Ducks, Battaglia would be traded to the Hartford Whalers while he was still playing in college at Lake Superior State in 1997. He would be traded again to the Avalanche at the 2003 deadline, then to the Capitals at the start of the 2003-04 season.

After the cancelled season and a PTO with the Marlies, he would sign on with the Leafs for the 06 season. He played the entire season with the Leafs, bringing in 32 points, but the following season he would only play 13 games before being sent down and left there for the duration of his contract.

In 2009 he would sign with the Syracuse Crunch, but leave them after 29 games and head to Europe, but bounce between lower level European teams and North American minor league teams until he finished his career with Karlskrona HK of the division 1 Swedish league.

So, what happened after hockey?

Bates and his brother would jump from hockey to more completion, participating in the 22nd Amazing Race in 2013.

They would win the race, a 48,000km trip around the world, winning five legs along the way.

Starting his career with the Whalers/Hurricanes, Bates stayed in North Carolina after retiring. He opened a bar named Lucky Bs in 2005 during his time off in the cancelled season, and it's still open in Raleigh.

He would join the Hurricanes as a corporate sales consultant, wooing companies into the suites and fancy seats to this day.

So, back to Carolina he went, and he seems to be enjoying retirement.

Thank you for the 95 games Bates. Sorry it was for those Leafs teams.

So..was there any other news?

The Leafs need better defenders, that's for sure.

Leafs prospects are going strong across the pond.

The trophy for the Four Nations Face Off has been revealed. Which begs the question, where did the World Cup trophy go?

4 Nations Face-Off trophy 🏆 🇨🇦🇫🇮🇸🇪🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/6Lb7TFKikn
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) February 11, 2025

Loui Eriksson officially retired, after 16 seasons and a couple eyebrow raising contracts.

The Kenyan Ice Lions hockey team wants to eventually play with the big countries, and won a friendly with some colder adversaries.

You can see the video from the CBC here.

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6645086

Referees for youth hockey are unfairly targets for abuse. This is leading to difficulty in recruitment. It was discussed on The Sheet with Jeff Marek earlier this week. (15:00)