Rumor: Kyle Dubas was recruiting 2 former NHL players during his visit to Russia.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have committed a ton of money to their top 4 forwards and as a result the Leafs and general manager Kyle Dubas are going to have to be very creative with how they spend their remaining cap space over the course of the next several seasons. This will likely mean searching for diamonds in the rough or perhaps finding some overlooked players to add to their roster at a relatively low cost.

Now there are of course a ton of avenues in which the young Maple Leafs GM could choose to navigate the situation, but thanks to one Russian hockey insider we may already have the inside track on one of those methods. According to a rather surprising report from Kontinental Hockey League insider Igor Eronko of Sports Express, Kyle Dubas met with two former NHL players currently playing in the KHL that also happen to be pending unrestricted free agents at the end of this current season. during a recent trip to Russia.

The first of those two players is former first round draft selection Mikhail Grigorenko. Grigorenko was of course drafted by the Buffalo Sabres (12th overall) at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft but only played a few games for that organization before eventually joining the ranks of the Colorado Avalanche. That would not last long either however and after 2 seasons with the Avs Grigorenko simply choose to leave the NHL altogether and returned home to Russia to play in the KHL with CSKA Moscow.

The second player that Dubas met with was defenseman Nikita Nesterov. Nesterov, a former 5th round draft pick (148th overall) at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft only played in a total of 132 NHL games before he too decided he would rather return to play in the KHL for CSKA Moscow. The former Lightning and Canadiens defenseman is still only 26 years old however and given some of the struggles the Leafs have faced on the blue line it's easy to see why Dubas could have interest.

Now it is unclear how many times Dubas met with each player but the situation was described as "meetings" which could suggest that Dubas had multiple conversations with both men. Additionally given that this is now such a poorly kept secret it may also suggest that the Maple Leafs have seriously considered signing both of these guys for the upcoming 2020 - 2021 NHL regular season.