Former Vancouver Canucks flop Josh Leivo has broken a significant KHL record, setting the new all-time high water mark in goals in a single season with a whopping 49 tallies this past season.
Leivo, 31, has spent the last two seasons playing for Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL after bouncing around between the AHL and NHL for his entire professional career.
The formerly esteemed Maple Leafs prospect had a modest first season in Russia, at least for their scoring standards, producing 15 goals, 23 assists, and 38 points in 40 games for Salavat.
This season, however, Leivo reached new heights that few, if any, thought possible, erupting for 49 goals, 31 assists, and 80 points in 62 games. In his lone playoff appearance so far, with the Gagarin Cup playoffs ongoing, Leivo has two assists.
Leivo's 49 goals snap the old record of 48 goals, which was established by KHL legend Sergei Mozkyakin back in the 2016-17 season.
By extension, the Innisfil, Ont., native also had one of the most prolific KHL seasons of all-time. Leivo's 80 points this season rank fourth in KHL history, trailing the previous marks of 82, 85, and 89 points, set by Mozyakin and Nikita Gusev, respectively.
Former Canucks forwards Reid Boucher and Nikolay Goldobin, ironically, rank sixth and seventh on that scoring list, with both players going for 78 points last season.
As for another former Canucks forward, prospect Vitali Kravstov, whose NHL rights still belong to the Canucks, scored 27 goals, 31 assists, and 58 points in 66 games for Traktor Chelyabinsk. If nothing else, the Canucks are well-represented in the KHL.
For fans unfamiliar with Leivo, the 31-year-old last played in the NHL in the 2022-23 season, appearing in 51 games for the St. Louis Blues and scoring four goals, 12 assists, and 16 points.
Leivo briefly played for the Canucks in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, appearing in a total of 85 games and scoring 17 goals, 20 assists, and 37 points.
The Toronto Maple Leafs' former third-round pick was always a very productive player at the AHL level and, as a result, became a fairly hyped sleeper prospect in some hockey circles.
Those projections never came to be, but Leivo joins a growing list of former Canucks excelling overseas in Russia's KHL.