Leafs have recalled Denis Malgin, let’s see what he’s been up to

He’s back, baby!

Okay, some of you might have completely forgotten about Denis Malgin, but he is still around. He’s just spent a little time back in Switzerland, playing hockey and (I assume) eating cheese. Now he’s back, been quarantined, and was assigned to Marlies, but never got around to playing. He’s skipped that step and has joined the taxi squad, and I wouldn’t doubt that the Leafs are looking to get him into at least one of the two remaining games to see how he looks against NHL competition.

While Malgin was overseas he managed to put up a pretty special season in the Swiss National League. He had 19 goals, 42 points in 45 games. He also picked up 3 points in the four playoff games he was in. This was the best scoring pace of Malgin’s young career, and at 24 this is certainly an encouraging thing to see and he definitely still needs to be viewed as an asset for the Leafs, significantly moreso than Mason Marchment was going to be.

When we last saw Malgin on the Leafs, he was held pointless in his eight games played for Toronto, so Swiss league numbers might look nice, but there is still a matter of producing in the NHL, which he did fairly well in Florida, again considering that he’s only now turned 24.

At 5’9, Malgin wouldn’t be joining the Leafs lineup to bust heads. Thankfully the Leafs have more of an abundance of players capable of doing that than ever before anyway. No, Malgin exists to provide the Leafs with a tertiary scorer if needed, and possibly a depth center if required, but much more realistically, he’s here to maybe give one more Leafs player a night off before the playoffs, and to spend time with the team to see if he’ll fit into their plans for the 2021-22 season.