TORONTO — Brendan Leipsic’s return to the Golden Knights lineup could not have worked out better.
The 23-year-old forward was back in Toronto on Monday night to face his former team, the Maple Leafs, who had left him exposed in the NHL Expansion Draft. He had sat out the past five games as a healthy scratch, but coach Gerard Gallant decided to put Leipsic in the lineup, sitting Will Carrier for the first time this season.
“He deserves a chance to play,” Gallant said of Leipsic, who has four assists in eight games this season and played with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Tomas Nosek on the Knights’ fourth line and logged 9 minutes, 24 seconds in ice time on Monday.