Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Most Disappointing Player This Season

Jordan Maresky

The most disappointing Toronto Maple Leafs player this season was Timothy Liljegren.

The highly touted first-round pick defensemen had incredible comparisons heading into his draft year. Scouts had him ranked as the top defensemen in his draft class, ahead of players such as Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar, and projected him to be a top-five pick.

Liljegren, however, was forced to miss the first two months of his draft-eligible season due to mononucleosis, causing his draft stock to fall and allow Toronto to pick him at #17.

Drawing comparisons to Erik Karlsson, Liljegren was praised for his modern skating ability, playmaking from the back end, and offensive prowess. Liljegren absolutely dominated the AHL. He put up 30 points this season in 40 games playing for the Toronto Marlies as a 21-year-old.

Erik Brannstrom, widely regarded as one of the best defensemen prospects in the game, was not even able to put up the same stats as Liljegren did in the minors. When the Swede got called up after Cody Ceci went down with an injury, many Leaf fans were excited to finally see the defensive prospect that had been pegged as a bonafide number 1 d-man.

Bouncing around between the AHL, the press box, and the Leafs’ third defensive pair, Liljegren only registered one assist in his 11 games, mostly playing in a heavily sheltered bottom-pairing role. Liljegren started 54% of his draws in the offensive zone while playing the majority of his even-strength minutes alongside fellow freshman and Swede, Rasmus Sandin.

Those 11 games showed Liljegren is still not ready for full NHL competition. He disappointed management this year and so he gets the nod as ‘most disappointing Leaf in 2019-20’.