TRADE!!! Leafs acquire Denis Malgin. WTF is Denis Malgin?
By Jon Steitzer
4 years agoAfter another crushing loss, GM Kyle Dubas couldn’t sit idly by, and that’s why he immediately sprung to action and pulled the trigger on a significant deal…
Okay, well, we’ll have to figure out who @Denis Malgin is first before we know how significant it was. He’s a former linemate of @Auston Matthews, from his Zurich days, so there’s that.
He’s 5’9, so immediately a large portion of Leafs fans immediately hate this deal.
An offensive forward with decent playmaking abilities, the diminutive Denis Malgin impresses with his strong hockey sense and offensive instincts. Has tremendous puck control and handles the puck with finesse, while rushing up the ice or deking past the opponents defense. Needs to improve his shot, although accurate it’s missing power. He also lacks confidence in his face-off play, regardless of his excellent puck-skills. Not overly flashy, but he reaches good top-end speed by keeping his legs moving. Can guide a Power Play and despite his small stature will stand his ground, when he has to battle along the boards.
| Season | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
| 2016-17 | 47 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 8 |
| 2017-18 | 51 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 6 |
| 2018-19 | 50 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 14 |
| 2019-20 | 36 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 12 |
He’s in his fourth season with the Panthers, and will require waivers if he was to be demoted, so we’ll assume he’s sticking with the Leafs for now, who don’t require any other transactions make room on the roster.
He makes $750k, so there are no cap worries here, and he’s an arbitration eligible restricted free agent this summer.
As for what the Leafs gave up. Well, Mason Marchment was potentially going to inject some physicality to the Leafs roster, but he never managed to hit anyone. He’s put up some impressive numbers of late in the AHL, and likely his value was never going to be higher than this. Moving on seems to make a lot of sense, even if Malgin seems a lot like what the Leafs have in Aberg and Petan already, but since neither of those players could click with the Leafs, Malgin presents a low risk third option. Or at the very least a solid potential center for the Marlies if he doesn’t pan out.
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