Mitch Marner and Jeremy Bracco, childhood friends, were adorable

Baby Leafs are pretty good. I mean, have you seen the Maple Leafs’ scoring stats this season? The rookies are leading the charge.

But you know what else is good? Baby Leafs. Like... actual babies.

Well, not Kanon Bozak-age babies, but small children who can only still dream of playing in the NHL? Those baby Leafs are pretty awesome - and beyond adorable, as Jeremy Bracco’s mom has proven to us with her son and Mitch Marner.

@sprochnicki @_marlanderthews @kristen_shilton Moms keep old pictures. They played together as kids! pic.twitter.com/virdqeKELM

— victoria dynes (@Hockeymombracco) January 5, 2017

Marner’s in orange, and Bracco is the kid in grey on the bottom with the incredible bangs.

This all stemmed from a quote Kristen Shilton reported on earlier:

Marner asked if he's likely to hear from Jeremy Bracco if USA wins tonight: "You won't stop hearing from him I bet."

— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) January 5, 2017

When you have a friendship as long lasting as Marner and Bracco appear to have had - seriously, look at how small(er) and adorable(r) they were back then - then chirping over one’s respective nations in the World Juniors has to be a given.

Hopefully Marner gets some peace from his American childhood friend, though!