Along with the additions of Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford, there’s one more (sort of) new player in the lineup tonight for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Timothy Liljegren will be back up with the Toronto Maple Leafs and will be in the lineup tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
It was a mystery regarding who would fill the last open right defense spot with Cody Ceci out, but now we know who it is, thanks to Rasmus Sandin.
Liljegren is expected to play in just his second career NHL game tonight, and will hopefully play the whole game alongside Sandin, if all goes to plan.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ducks
Rasmus Sandin says the plan, at least to start, is for him and Timothy Liljegren to start on a pair together.
— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) February 7, 2020
In his only game in the NHL, Liljegren had just shy of 11 minutes of ice time. I’ll be curious to see whether he tries that pairing out a little more just to see how they do, or whether he’s hesitant on playing them too much.
Ceci was placed on IR today and he’s out indefinitely with an ankle injury, which could see Liljegren get more than just a few NHL games under his belt.
Maybe not though — Kyle Dubas could be squandering the trade market looking to land a big defenseman with term and cap, since the Toronto Maple Leafs now have $6.5 million in “usable Salary Pool space,” according to CapFriendly.
In total, there will be two brand new faces in the lineup tonight, and one we sort of already know.
That’s right, Kyle Clifford will be in the lineup tonight, and so will Jack Campbell as he gets the start versus the Ducks.
He will be rocking a new helmet, but will be keeping the pads for now (he does have new blue ones) since he said today that it’ll be harder to break those in.
After today’s morning skate, some players got to shed light on how excited they are to be here, plus sharing a story about dinner last night:
Kyle Clifford said he grabbed dinner with Jack Campbell and Jake Muzzin last night, and Mitch Marner tagged along too - “[Mitch] was nice enough to pick up the tab so. Hell of a guy.”
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) February 7, 2020
This team is going to look a little different now. A bit younger, tougher, a better goaltender (with Frederik Andersen out) and with the new additions, more close knit.
There’s 28 games left in this season and right now the Toronto Maple Leafs are on the outside looking in. This could be the biggest stretch of some players’ careers, and yet, I believe they can do this and get into the playoffs.
Some people may not, but with a partial new looking team — anything is possible.
Tonight is a night where we see how the team looks with some new faces and it might not look pretty at first, but let’s all hope they somehow squeeze out a lot of wins before April.