Kieffer Bellows is playing his way into a contract with the Leafs

When free agency rolls around every year, 99% of the focus is rightfully shifted toward the holes on the NHL roster that need to be filled. When you’re the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the draft and the subsequent free agency period, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger microscope to fall under. Brad Treliving lived this experience for the first time this past summer. Not as a GM in free agency, he’s a seasoned veteran on that front. But, doing it with the Maple Leafs is a whole different beast. 

Treliving had a…rough first day of free agency as Leafs GM. He began the festivities with a multi-year contract for an aging enforcer in Ryan Reaves and a one-year deal for defenceman John Klingberg, whose defensive issues proved to outweigh the puck-moving ability he was signed for. That said, he seemingly won the fanbase back by signing Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to one-year deals the following day. 

Things quieted down after those four contracts were signed. By the time the offseason ended, the Leafs had sprinkled in a couple of depth signings including defencemen William Lagesson and Simon Benoit, as well as veteran goaltender Martin Jones all on one-year deals. The latter two have been big parts in helping keep the Leafs above water as they navigate through defensive and goaltending setbacks, and they also had forward Noah Gregor spawn a contract from a PTO (professional tryout), blossoming into a fine fourth-line forward in the process.

Remember that term “PTO”, because Gregor wasn’t the only one who signed one of those this year. 

About three weeks into the NHL season, Treliving offered a PTO to former New York Islanders first-round pick Kieffer Bellows. The son of former NHLer Brian Bellows spent the first four years of his career with the Islanders organization, playing parts of those four seasons in the NHL and parts in the AHL. Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, he tallied 25 points over 68 NHL games combined. His time with the Islanders came to an end when he was placed on waivers in October 2022 and subsequently claimed by the Philadelphia Flyers. The 25-year-old struggled to find his footing in the NHL with the Flyers, with only three goals in 27 games, and wasn’t tendered an offer this summer. 

Bellows was promptly offered a PTO by the Carolina Hurricanes back in September but was released less than a month later. Enter the Maple Leafs, who decided to give him another shot on the tryout front at the hands of their AHL affiliate.

Since signing with a PTO with the Toronto Marlies, Bellows has consistently been one of their best forwards night in and night out. He’s got 14 goals and 23 points in 24 games to date, and he doesn’t even have a contract yet. His production is good for fourth in scoring on the Marlies, and he’s scored three goals in his last two games.