Clearly, there was a handshake agreement in place between Kyle Dubas and Josh Leivo dictating that he would not be sitting games out in the press box while healthy and capable of contributing to a large number of teams in the NHL. Leivo spent the better part of two seasons doing just that (sitting), hoping for Mike Babcock to take more of a shining to him while biding his time for an opportunity by way of injury or poor performance.
The absence of William Nylander afforded Leivo that opportunity for the first time in his Leaf career to start the 2018-19 season, and for the most part, he took advantage of it.