Brendan Leipsic Moved In KHL Trade For Rights To Another Ex-NHLer

 A trade between two KHL teams in Siberia’s two largest cities on Saturday saw one former NHL player go one way and the playing rights to another go the other. Canadian left winger Brendan Leipsic moves from Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg to Sibir Novosibirsk, while the KHL rights to Finnish center Janne Kuokkanen are transferred from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg.

“This deal helps Avtomobilist comply with the salary cap,” says the Yekaterinburg club’s website, “in connection with the already completed transfers of Darren Dietz and Nikita Shashkov to our team, as well as the planned return of Nick Ebert from the injured list.”

Leipsic, who hails from Winnipeg, played junior hockey for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks and was chosen in the third round, 89^th overall, by the Nashville Predators in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. From 2014 until 2020, he recorded 59 points and 53 penalty minutes in 187 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals.

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In May 2020, the Capitals terminated Leipsic’s contract after his misogynistic comments in an online chat group were leaked to the public.

Leipsic has played in the KHL continuously since 2020 for CSKA Moscow, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, SKA St. Petersburg, Avtomobilist and now Sibir. As of the time of his trade, he had recorded 153 points in 250 KHL regular-season and playoff games.

Kuokkanen, a product of Kärpät Oulu in Finland who played one year for the OHL’s London Knights, was taken in the second round, 43^rd overall, by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. Between 2017 and 2022, he had 42 points and 28 penalty minutes in 119 NHL games with the Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils.

He has also played professionally in Finland with Kärpät, in Switzerland with Fribourg-Gottéron and in Sweden with the Malmö Redhawks. He’s now back in Switzerland and has 18 points in 25 games this season with Lausanne HC. He has never played in the KHL and it’s unclear whether either team involved in the trade expects him to at any point in the future.

Avtomobilist currently sits fourth out of 11 teams in the KHL’s Eastern Conference with 44 points in 35 games. The team’s roster includes ex-NHLers Nikita Tryamkin, Stéphane Da Costa and Nick Merkley. It also includes NHL prospects Semyon Kizimov (Toronto Maple Leafs), Maxim Denezhkin (Edmonton Oilers) and Yevgeni Kashnikov (San Jose Sharks).

Sibir sits ninth in the conference with 29 points in 33 games. The team’s roster includes ex-NHLer Andy Andreoff and Toronto prospect Vladislav Kara.