Two Canadian players returning to the KHL: 'We are not afraid'
Two Canadian hockey players who participated in the KHL last season have posted a photo indicating they plan to return to the league and are "not afraid". The photo and caption were posted on the Instagram account of Aljosa Pilko, who is the agent for both Brendan Leipsic and Philippe Maillet. Both have played in the NHL for the Washington Capitals (Maillet got just two games), and both were teammates with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2021-22, making it all the way to the Gagarin Cup Final and game seven before losing to CSKA Moscow. Here is the photo. The caption translates to "We are not afraid. And we're coming back."
Maillet signed in the KHL after spending four years in the Washington Capitals system and being stuck in the minors. His first full season in the KHL proved to be successful as he recorded 39 points (15G, 24A) in 49 regular season games, and another 21 points (8G, 13A) in 23 playoff games.
Leipsic managed 187 games in the NHL with four different teams, but was ditched by the Capitals following an incident where private Instagram chats were released publicly. Those chats contained derogatory comments about players and their significant others. He's been with Magnitogorsk the past two seasons and also had a very good showing in the KHL playoffs (11G, 9A, 23GP).
There had been some speculation that most outside of Russia would choose not to play in the KHL for at least as long as the current situation with Ukraine lasts, given the potential security issues it raises. However, it seems it is mostly European players from Sweden, Finland and other countries much closer to Russia that are choosing to play at home. There will be others from Canada and the US that play in Russia in 2022-23.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 20, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||