Kirill Marchenko is Finally Making His Maple Leafs Debut, and Montreal is the First Test

Elliotte Friedman just dropped the confirmation that Kirill Marchenko is officially making his Toronto Maple Leafs debut tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.

For a fanbase that treats every minor roster adjustment like a geopolitical crisis, adding a legitimate scoring threat to the lineup is enough to start planning the parade route before the puck even drops.

Marchenko is not just a warm body to fill out the bottom six. The guy was a rare bright spot in the hockey wasteland of Columbus, putting up 26 goals and 37 assists last season while the rest of the Blue Jackets were busy figuring out how to lose to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Now he gets to step into the brightest spotlight in the sport against a Montreal team that just dropped a 4-3 game to the Ottawa Senators. Despite the Canadiens stumbling into town, the projection models actually have Montreal as a slight favorite tonight with a 59 percent win probability.

That math feels like a direct insult to Toronto, who handled that same Ottawa team 4-2 last week. But expecting the Maple Leafs to do the logical thing on any given Tuesday is a great way to accidentally donate your disposable income to a sportsbook.

We will see exactly how much offensive juice Marchenko adds to the rotation immediately. If he clicks, Toronto has a shiny new weapon to deploy when the New York Islanders roll into town tomorrow night for the second half of a quick back-to-back.