Ben Danford felt the sweat from his palms on the steering wheel.
In the boat with him, Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan, Conor Timmins, Bobby McMann and Marshall Rifai — people Danford hoped would be future Maple Leafs teammates — looked on. Behind them all, the main reason for the 18-year-old’s rising nerves was floating in the water.
John Tavares, the then-Leafs captain, bobbed up and down. He gave Danford, 16 years his junior, a thumbs-up.
“I’ve driven a boat,” Danford said in a lengthy interview, “but never when someone was doing water sports behind it.”