Along with the NHL offseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs development camp is underway.
The Toronto Maple Leafs may not be featuring Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, or William Nylander at Dev. camp, but there’s no shortage of talent. Jeremy Bracco, Adam Brooks, and 2017 first rounder Timothy Liljegren highlight the rookies at this year’s camp.
The Leafs have always seemed to know each of their top prospects’ destiny for the following season. Marner would return to juniors for one more season and then make the jump to the NHL. Meanwhile, Matthews would skip the affiliates and go right to the NHL.
However, there’s a bit more of a question mark with Liljegren.
Following the draft, he had four options.
– Return to the SHL
– Play in the OHL (The Niagara IceDogs own his rights)
– Report to the AHL and play for the Marlies
– Go right to the NHL
However, a tweet broke out from Leafs camp from insider David Alter, who provided Leafs fans a faithful update on Liljegren.
Lamoriello says it Liljegren will either be playing pro in Sweden or with the Marlies next season. One or the other.
— David Alter (@dalter) July 12, 2017
These are easily the best options for the Kristianstad native. He would likely be too good for the OHL, which would stall his development, and he’s not quite ready for the NHL, which could hurt his development. The AHL and SHL are both in the middle talent-wise, making these the best options for him.
Where Will He End up?
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In my opinion, I think we’ll see a bit of both.
No, there’s not some sort of device that will allow us to have Liljegren playing in two leagues at a time to see where he fares better. It’s only 2017.
I know, I know, that was an awful joke. I’ll see myself out.
In all honesty, though, I think we’ll see Lou Lamoriello pull out a similar path for Liljegren to what he did for Nylander a few years back. Remember, he started the season playing for MODO of the SHL, and in January of that season, he moved to Canada to play for the Marlies. He played very well in both leagues.
It was widely speculated that Liljegren would like to go back to Sweden for a year before playing in North America. However, I think the Leafs will convince Liljegren and his agent to make the transition back to North America so that they can monitor his development closely.
Plus, you have to believe that Lou will make it clear to Rogle BK (his SHL team) that if he’s playing in Sweden, he won’t be spending any time playing for the farm team.
Next: No Interest in Olli Maatta
Liljegren is a very skilled prospect and assuming he doesn’t come down with another case of mono or some other kind of freak injury, he’s poised to have a good post-draft season.