Toronto Maple Leafs: Will Alex Galchenyuk Replace Jimmy Vesey?

The Toronto Maple Leafs recently made a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes for forward Alex Galchenyuk. The trade has left many in Toronto confused. To get Galchenyuk, the Leafs had to send Egor Korshkov and David Warsofsky to Carolina.

Korshkov was a promising prospect for the Toronto Maple Leafs who is having a good season over in the KHL. Warsofsky is a depth defenseman for the Toronto Marlies who last played in the NHL during the 2017-18 season.

Galchenyuk can be seen as a depth signing by Toronto, but is he an upgrade over anyone we currently have on the roster? The simple answer is no he’s not. So why did the Leafs go and trade for him? Upside.

Galchenyuk is a 6’1 210 LBS centre/winger with a 30 goal season.  He may not be better than any of the Leafs other depth options, but he’s only 27 and a career revival isn’t out of the question.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Experiment With Jimmy Vesey Has Failed

When the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Vesey during the off-season, it was a surprising signing. At first, everyone assumed it was just a depth signing for the team’s bottom-six, but Management had other ideas.

Kyle Dubas and the Toronto coaching staff thought of Vesey as a reclamation project. They were hoping that by putting Vesey on the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander that he would bounce back and produce as he did during the 2018-19 season with the New York Rangers.

During that season he recorded 17 goals and 18 assists for 35 points in 81 games. If the Leafs could get that Jimmy Vesey and not the one who had 20 points in 64 games last season, it would be a win for them.

Unfortunately, that plan has not worked out as Vesey now finds himself on the team’s fourth line averaging a little over 12 minutes a game. He currently has just three points in 16 games as the Leafs get set to play the Ottawa Senators tonight.

Will Alex Galchenyuk Be The Toronto Maple Leafs Next Experiment?

Galchenyuk has been on a steady decline since the 2017-18 season when he had 51 points in 82 games. The 2018-19 season saw his production drop to 41 points in 72 games and then last season it dropped to just 24 points in 59 games.

This season, he has one point in eight games which lead to Ottawa trading him to the Hurricanes. Before he even left the country to head to Carolina, the Hurricanes traded him to Toronto. That means he was able to avoid the quarantine protocols for players traveling across the border.

Since Galchenyuk had already gone through waivers, he didn’t have to do so again when the Leafs acquired him. He was immediately placed on the Toronto Marlies AHL roster after the trade. The website capfriendly.com reported this morning that Galchenyuk has been recalled by Maple Leafs and will on the team’s taxi squad.

They also reported that his $1.075 million contract is less than the buried threshold, so he doesn’t count against the team’s salary cap unless he joins the active roster. If Vesey continues to struggle, we could see Galchenyuk take his place in the lineup.

As someone who has followed Korshkov’s career since Toronto drafted him in 2016, it is sad to see him go. The trade is good for the Toronto Maple Leafs as it frees up a spot on the team’s 50 pro contracts list, and gives the Leafs an opportunity to add a talented player to their roster. Whether he maximizes that talent is another question, but Galchenyuk is a low-risk/high reward gamble for Toronto and I hope it works.