{"id":87074,"date":"2025-07-23T22:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87074\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T22:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:43:11","slug":"newly-acquired-toronto-maple-leaf-dakota-joshua-has-incredible-reason-for-his-jersey-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87074\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Acquired Toronto Maple Leaf Dakota Joshua Has Incredible Reason For His Jersey Number"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joshua was acquired by the Leafs this summer<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>July 23, 2025 4:43 PM EDT\u2022<strong>Updated<\/strong>July 23, 2025 4:43 PM EDT<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"fb\">Facebook<\/li>\n<li class=\"tw\">Twitter<\/li>\n<li class=\"email\">Email<\/li>\n<li class=\"link\">Copy Link<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/toronto-maple-leafs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> made some significant changes to their lineup this summer after yet another disappointing postseason, and that included shipping former core player Mitch Marner to Vegas in a sign-and-trade deal that was completed just before the start of free agency, while bringing in former Vancouver Canuck Dakota Joshua.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The Leafs will be hoping that Joshua will bring some much-needed forward depth, and it only cost them a fourth-round pick to bring him in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Of course, he&#8217;ll need a jersey number, and in a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/sports\/hockey\/nhl\/toronto-maple-leafs\/dakota-joshua-takes-fellow-cancer-survivor-phil-kessels-no-81\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Toronto Sun<\/a>, that he will wear No. 81, and he&#8217;s got a pretty incredible reason for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">That was the number that Joshua wore in Vancouver, and that last time it was worn by a Maple Leaf was when NHL ironman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/phil-kessel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Phil Kessel<\/a> wore it for the team from 2009 to 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Kessel and Johnson both happen to be testicular cancer survivors, so keeping No. 81 is a very cool tribute to Phil the Thrill.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"668\" height=\"376\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/joshua-kessel.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Toronto Maple Leafs forward Dakota Joshua will continue wearing the number 81 to honor former Leaf Phil Kessel as both players are cancer survivors. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;I love the mojo there,&#8221; Joshua said. &#8220;I knew his story and looking forward to playing a long time here like Kessel did.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Kessel was diagnosed with cancer early in his career while a member of the Boston Bruins. Joshua battled the disease after a tumor was discovered last summer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;For sure it puts your life in perspective,&#8221; Joshua said. &#8220;The biggest takeaway is that anything can happen to you, so make the most of (life). But after coming out the other side, I\u2019m stronger as a person. It makes you confident you can get through anything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">It&#8217;s a great homage to a player that is somehow still a little underrated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Kessel was a star for the Leafs, but also came under fire from the Toronto media, which can be notoriously tough on players.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">He left town just as the current Auston Matthews-John Tavares-William Nylander era was getting underway, and moved on to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015 and won back-to-back Stanley Cups. He won a third with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">He hasn&#8217;t played since, but has not officially retired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua was acquired by the Leafs this summer PublishedJuly 23, 2025 4:43 PM EDT\u2022UpdatedJuly 23, 2025 4:43 PM&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-87074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114904970536081100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}