Toronto Maple Leafs a Chance at Redemption For Alex Galchenyuk

The Toronto Maple Leafs made a surprise trade yesterday when they acquired forward Alex Galchenyuk from the Carolina Hurricanes.

The much maligned forward most recently played for the Toronto Maple Leafs  Ontario rivals the Ottawa Senators, but found himself sent to the Hurricanes in a deal that saw the Sens reacquire Ryan Dzingel.

Galchenyuk was promptly placed on waivers by Hurricanes and cleared without a problem, with the Leafs making the surprising trade for his services just hours after clearing.

Now, he has an opportunity to resurrect his floundering career that once saw him as a 30 goal scoring threat in the NHL.

Redemption For Galchenyuk

With Galchenyuk having passed through waivers, the Hurricanes reportedly placed him with their AHL affiliates the Chicago Wolves.

Having been traded to the Leafs, that means the 27-year-old can now either be assigned to the Toronto Marlies or to the team’s taxi squad.

Additionally, the flexible forward did not cross the border after being traded to the Hurricanes, which allows him to link up with the Leafs, or Marlies, at the earliest opportunity without the need for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

As per Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, Galchenyuk will be working with the Leafs organization’s development coaches, who will likely look at his game and figure out a way to make him productive once again, allowing him to have more of a transitional period before eventually being brought into the NHL roster.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, they parted ways for a career AHL defenseman in David Warsofsky and finally moved on from their second round pick in 2016, Egor Korshkov, who has been playing well in the KHL this season.

For Galchenyuk, this presents him with a legitimate opportunity to get his career back on track after he hit a fairly significant stumbling block since being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2019.

Prior to his move to Pittsburgh, Galchenyuk had five consecutive seasons where he registered at least 40 points, including a season with 20 goals, one with 30 goals and two with 19 goals each, one of which was tied-most for the goal-shy Arizona Coyotes – a pretty decent scoring rate.

His move to the Penguins had many hoping he would be partnered with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin and light up the league, but that didn’t materialize and he registered just five goals and 17 points in 45 games. (All stats via Hockey Reference).

He was traded to the Minnesota Wild before the end of the Covid-shortened 2019/20 season and his production improved, with seven points (three goals, four assists) in 14 appearances.

His one-goal, eight-game stint with the Ottawa Senators saw him playing on the bottom line while the developing team struggled to find its identity, something that has not helped the former third-overall pick get his footing.

Now, he will be in a position where he will not be rushed, at least in the short-term. He will work with the Leafs  coaches and try to figure things out, potentially even featuring in the AHL to give him minutes and put into practice the things he works on.

A positive run of games, boosting his confidence, should put Galchenyuk in an excellent position to move into the offense-heavy Toronto Maple Leafs line-up and work on providing the team with the kind of goals he scored regularly for most of his career.

He isn’t the 30-goal scorer of years past, but he can be a valuable player on the third line and potentially even on the power-play, especially if injuries continue to play their part this season.

He will need to work on improving the defensive side of his game, but this is a serious opportunity for Galchenyuk to get things back on track, otherwise he may find himself down in the minors for a significantly longer time than he would like.