On Friday morning, hours before their game against the Calgary Flames, the Toronto Maple Leafs received good news. Head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed that gritty forward Wayne Simmonds would be in uniform tonight.
Simmonds has been out since Feb. 6. He was originally expected to miss about six weeks. He had been playing well prior to being injured, tallying five goals in his first 12 games with the Maple Leafs.
It is great for the Leafs to have him back since tempers often flared when Toronto and Calgary clash. On Wednesday night, following a humiliating loss at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, Matthew Tkachuk appeared to taunt the Leafs ahead of their back-to-back showdown.
“I guarantee you Toronto is watching us tonight, probably licking their chops the way we played. Those skill guys over there, they’re wanting a game like that on Friday and Saturday.”
If Simmonds was watching then, Tkachuk will need to behave.
On top of that, the Leafs confirmed that Alex Galchenyuk will make his team debut. During team practice these past weeks days, he landed on the second line of the Maple Leafs, skating with captain John Tavares and William Nylander. Keefe believes it will help the veteran forward to better his game.
"There's more to this player here in terms of what he has to offer, but also more to what he needed and that's why we took the patient approach with him...to help really find his game."
Galchenyuk signed as a free agent with the Ottawa Senators in Oct. 2020, only to be traded once again on Feb. 13 to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes subsequently placed Galchenyuk on waivers, then orchestrated a trade that sent him to Toronto for Yegor Korshkov and David Warsofsky after he cleared the wire.
The veteran Galchenyuk has played 557 NHL games, with 136 goals and 321 points on his record, but the Leafs didn’t need him and he remained down in the AHL. He has played for the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild and Senators even since he was selected third overall back in 2012 by the Habs.
Now he gets his first as a Maple Leaf.
Here is the full expected lineup for tonight:
