Canadian center Michael McLeod, 26, has signed a contract to play the remainder of the current season with Avangard Omsk, the KHL club announced on Tuesday.
Omsk will be McLeod’s second KHL team this season. He previously signed with Kazakhstan-based Barys Astana in August and was the team’s leading scorer with six points in 16 games. However, he was released on Oct. 18 along with fellow North American ex-NHLers Will Butcher and Nathan Beaulieu in an apparent cost-cutting measure by the last-place team. Since then, the club has also released Chase De Leo, Alex Grant and Wade Allison.
After playing junior for his hometown Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL, McLeod was chosen in the first round, 12th overall, by the New Jersey Devils in 2016. Between 2018 and 2024, McLeod played 287 regular-season NHL games for the Devils, registering 29 goals, 56 assists, 85 points and 187 penalty minutes. His only NHL playoff action came in 2023, recording six points in 12 games as the Devils advanced to the second round.
On January 24, 2024, McLeod and teammate Cal Foote were granted indefinite leaves of absence from the team.
Internationally, McLeod represented Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the IIHF U18 World Championship and two World Junior Championships, winning a gold medal in 2018. On Jan. 30, 2024, McLeod was one of five members from that 2018 team charged with sexual assault, stemming from a 2018 team event in London, Ont. Others charged were Foote, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart and Alex Formenton.
McLeod faces an additional charge of being a party to the offense. The charges have not been proven in court and McLeod’s representatives have said that he will plead not guilty.
Since the charges were laid, Dubé signed with Belarus-based KHL club Dinamo Minsk and Foote signed with Slovak Extraliga club HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš.
The trial is scheduled to begin on April 22 and is expected to last eight weeks. The KHL regular season ends on March 23 but the Gagarin Cup playoffs will run into May. It’s not clear what will happen if Omsk is still playing at the time McLeod’s trial is set to begin.
Normally a league powerhouse, Omsk currently sits 10th in the 12-team Eastern Conference with 22 points in 25 games. Earlier this week, the team traded for 2012 first-overall pick Nail Yakupov. The team’s roster also includes former NHLers Ryan Spooner and Reid Boucher, and formerly included Linden Vey until he left the team on Nov. 1 “to manage family issues.” Vey has since signed with Fribourg-Gottéron in Switzerland.