The Toronto Maple Leafs announced today that they’ve loaned RW Egor Korshkov to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL.

We’ve known about this for a while, but were waiting on confirmation from the team. You can read Katya’s article on the reasoning behind the move.

“The KHL season is set to start On September 2, with training camp already underway, but the official schedule has not been released. Training camps have been disrupted with multiple positive tests for COVID-19, cancelled games and tournaments amidst a plan that seems to involve regular operation, international travel and fans in arenas for games where that is allowed.”

Report from Russia: Egor Korshkov to return to KHL for one season

Korshkov is the second Leaf heading to Russia to start the season early, the other being recent signee Mikko Lehtonen, who is back with Jokerit.

Maple Leafs send Mikko Lehtonen back to Jokerit

It’s all but sure these players will have out-clauses back to North American once the next NHL regular season hopefully begins in December 2020. Lots of NHL teams are looking for homes for their prospects where applicable since Europe is starting organized sports well before North America is.

My guess is the Leafs are also looking for a home for Mikhail Abramov (currently in Russia for a summer tournament). Hard to imagine he’s there now, comes back, and sits around until December when the CHL hopes to begin again.