Since then, Galchenyuk’s career has been a ridiculous and long-winded roadmap, playing for five different NHL teams and two other AHL teams in his last four seasons. A rebuilding Ottawa Senators team initially gave him a shot off a one-year deal, but after posting just 1 goal and a -6 rating over 8 games, he was shipped to the Carolina Hurricanes and then, immediately after, traded to the Maple Leafs. After his first stint in the AHL, where he got a chance to gain his confidence back, the Leafs made Galchenyuk a key part of their middle-six, and he played that two-way role solidly.
While Toronto was likely Galchenyuk’s last shot to find stability, said decent regular season and playoff performance ultimately went up in smoke after kick-starting the Habs first-round comeback in the 2021 playoffs, after a terrible giveaway to Cole Caufield in Game 5 that saw Nick Suzuki score the winner. While Toronto purportedly offered Galchenyuk a six-figure extension in the offseason, he turned it down to look for something better, and well, look how that turned out. Galchenyuk is a player I’ve talked about to no end in my past writing for this site, and every time it seems like he’s about to fade from the public eye, something happens that brings him right back onto my radar, for better or for worse.