Russian forward waived by the Leafs, expected to have his contract terminated

The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed forward Kirill Semyonov on waivers on Wednesday, TSN's Chris Johnston reports. It is believed that the Russian pivot is being waived for the purpose of a contract termination.

The early word is that Semyonov will return home and sign with his former KHL team, Omsk Avangard after failing to stick in the NHL.

With winger Ilya Mikheyev joining the Leafs on their upcoming Western road trip, it appears as though he is close to a return, which unfortunately put Semyonov on the outs.

This seems like Leafs GM Kyle Dubas trying to do right by Semyonov, who was given some looks and a fair chance to compete for a permanent job in the Leafs' bottom six in training camp, just coming up short.

In 9 games with the AHL's Toronto Marlies, Semyonov scored 1 goal and added 8 assists for 9 points. He failed to produce at the NHL level, coming up empty after 3 games in a depth role, often not doing anything noticeable during the limited ice time he had received.

The Leafs faced a similar dilemma with Alexander Barabanov last season, but wound up finding him an opportunity in San Jose and trading him there. It's unclear at this point whether there just weren't any teams interested in Semyonov or if his preference was to return to Russia.

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