{"id":75334,"date":"2025-08-17T01:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75334\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T01:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:32:10","slug":"former-maple-leaf-suddenly-becomes-available-forcing-toronto-into-a-tough-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75334\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Maple Leaf Suddenly Becomes Available, Forcing Toronto Into a Tough Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/588084.webp.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving\" title=\"Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Hockey Patrol<\/p>\n<p>Josh Leivo was terminated from his contract with Salavat Yulayev recently and might be on his way back to the NHL. Is a reunion with Toronto possible?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been an interesting turn of events for former Maple Leafs forward Josh Leivo, as he once went from being a draft pick with a lot of hype, to out of the league and overseas in the KHL.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeypatrol.com\/nhl\/news\/former-maple-leafs-breaks-record-for-most-goals-in-single-season-in-the-khl\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">However he&#8217;s certainly thrived<\/a> since going over there and ended up becoming the league&#8217;s record setter for goals in a season last year with 49; a testament to his ability on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>While free to sign anywhere, an NHL return doesn&#8217;t seem likely. Or does it?<\/p>\n<p> How Josh Leivo&#8217;s Availability Could Open the Door for a Maple Leafs Depth Move<\/p>\n<p>With his electric offensive abilities and the fact that the Maple Leafs could certainly use an injection in that regard, and it&#8217;s not like he&#8217;d be a stranger.<\/p>\n<p>But if he&#8217;s having issues beyond a simple visa issue it might be more concerning though you can&#8217;t argue he would be a great top-nine piece.<\/p>\n<p>There is a case to be made that he can slide into the top six but it&#8217;s more likely he finds himself as a depth forward who can be called upon for some extra offense and if there&#8217;s any injury issues, it&#8217;s not like Leivo can&#8217;t step in.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, he could give the team a great rotation piece with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/Michael-Pezzetta-41362\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Michael Pezzetta profile and hockey stats\">Michael Pezzetta<\/a> and give the Leafs a solid bottom-six core that can not only add scoring but intimidate.<\/p>\n<p>How Josh Leivo&#8217;s Cost Affects Maple Leafs<\/p>\n<p>He also shouldn&#8217;t really cost more than the amount Toronto has to spend but given his last couple of seasons, he could end up making a decent amount coming back.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/leivojo01.html\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Leivo<\/a> is no stranger to the NHL, as he played 265 games with Toronto, Vancouver, St. Louis, Calgary and Columbus and had 93 points (42 goals, 51 assists) before leaving overseas.<\/p>\n<p>If Brad Treliving wants to bring him back, it certainly wouldn&#8217;t be a bad idea but they need to make sure they have enough cap room and roster space to make it work.<\/p>\n<p>But adding the KHL&#8217;s top scorer? Not a bad idea all things considered.<\/p>\n<p>Previously on HockeyPatrol<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>3 HOURS AGO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0263 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Former Maple Leaf Suddenly Becomes Available, Forcing Toronto Into a Tough Call<\/p>\n<p>Will Josh Leivo return to the NHL?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: Hockey Patrol Josh Leivo was terminated from his contract with Salavat Yulayev recently and might be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,20215,41407,8030,448,46292,82,46291,746],"class_list":["post-75334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-free-agent-rumors","tag-josh-leivo","tag-khl","tag-nhl","tag-salavat-yulayev","tag-sports","tag-terminated","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}