Liljegren coupled with a first round pick would be the kind of package that, if you’re willing to part with, you could probably have your pick of rental players. Or close enough. It’s the kind of package that should be able to turn the Leafs from ‘one of’ the best teams into ‘definitely the best team ‘ in the NHL.
Trading Liljegren is not the most desirable option, but chances like the Toronto Maple Leafs are getting this year rarely, if ever come along. They can have a great core for a decade, but there’s no guarantee they’ll ever get a chance where they can fit so many star player in under the salary cap again.
The Leafs will never have a better chance to win than in the last year of Marner and Matthews’ entry-level deals. To just happen to have Andersen, Gardiner and Tavares all in their primes at the same time is like having the stars all line up in your favor.
Since this is the case, the team needs to make an aggressive move to cement their chances. They are going to have to swing for the fences on one big trade, and moving either Kadri, Dermott or Liljegren is what it’s going to take to win a Stanley Cup.
In the NHL, you have to take risks to win. Inevitably, this will all come back to the non-sense about past Leafs teams and their penchant for trading the future for the eternal present. This isn’t that, and any mention of past teams is a terrible false comparison.
The NHL, today, is a salary cap league. Past Leafs team’s lack of patience have no bearing on the fact that MItch Marner and Auston Matthews, should the team wish to defer their bonuses until next year, can be used for something like the league minimum. This despite the fact that they are two of the best players in the NHL. In all subsequent years, they will cost a minimum of $20 million dollars. Therefore, it is imperative that the Leafs take advantage of the situation.
The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t make decisions based on the ghosts of their pasts. This is the time to be all-in and there will never be another chance like this. Unless you think the Leafs can be reasonably assured of having two of the league’s best players on entry-level contracts at some point in the future, now is the time.
And if that means that Timothy Liljegren plays his first game in another uniform, so be it.