Toronto Maple Leafs: Will Timothy Liljegren Be a Top Pairing Defenseman?

Timothy Liljegren’s debut season for the Toronto Maple Leafs displayed many strengths along with noticeable weaknesses.

The final thought Timothy Liljegren placed in my head during his season with the Toronto Maple Leafs was that he is really solid for a young defenseman, but there were a few weaknesses that caught my eye.

Yes, he is solid for his age, but is he really a top-defenseman for a contending team like the Maple Leafs?

According to the stats he is, but since many of his minutes were either 3rd pairing, or with Auston Matthews, we can’t solely rely on the measurements, as encouraging as they may be.

The idea behind a top-pairing defenseman is that they can eat minutes, show an ability to recover from shifts fast, reliable defensively, play in all situations, and provide solid offense for the position, and most of all, come out on top in puck-possession, shot and scoring chance shares.

Depending on the tendency of the specific defenseman, the later of the expectations would vary. Overall, Liljegren is widely considered to be a talented defenseman who can carry the puck and can impact the game with his offensive skillset.

Here, I will look at the strengths and weaknesses Liljegren currently has and whether or not he projects to have a solid career, preferably with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

 Strengths

Liljegren has solid skating, which really helps the Maple Leafs as he would quarterback the powerplay on the breakout.

He can keep up with the opposition, and his offensive upside could give the Maple Leafs another puck mover on D outside of Morgan Rielly.  Although he isn’t as aggressive or as talented in this regard as a truly elite offensive threat.

He is capable of making a great first pass to jumpstart the rush that the Leafs love to use to attack, but since he isn’t elite at retrieving pucks, he likely won’t be able to fully harness this power.  Statistically, he thrives at carrying the puck out of the zone and struggles when passing it.  

He can skate away from trouble, and he can lead the rush on his own. He is very adept at carrying the puck out of his zone, or  into the offensive zone successfully.

From his draft year, via Bob McKenzie of TSN, he was known to:

Scouts say his offensive game is far more developed than his defensive game. He is an elite skater, both in terms of speed and agility, and adept at running a power play. He is seen as both a puck mover and an offensive point producer. No one is suggesting he’s the next Erik Karlsson, not by any means, but scouts say he has some of the same qualities and, therefore, has the potential to be projected as a possible top pairing defenceman in time.

Another thing that Liljegren was praised on was his intelligence, and in his debut season, it was noticeable. He was not scared with the puck and analyzed his options before he made a decision. Yes, sometimes the decision wasn’t the best, but more often than not he made the right one. His confidence should only increase as he may find himself in a top-four role of an elite team this season.

Timothy Liljegren is an offensive defenseman, to no one’s surprise, and he scored at a 50 point clip without much (if any) power play time.  With more power-play time, I could see him putting up around 65 points per season if he continues to work on and polish the skills he does have while focusing on fixing his weaknesses.

Liljegren’s top strengths would be:

• Puck moving
• Agility and skating
• Passing ability
• Shot
• Overcomes lack of strength with smarts to be above average defensively

Speaking of weaknesses…

Weaknesses

Yeah, if you watched the Stanley Cup Playoff series vs the Tampa Bay Lightning, I’m sure that you saw this one coming.

The first thing Liljegren MUST work on is his strength. In the regular season, I could see him struggling to box guys out in front of the net. On top of this, his positioning to out-work bigger guys wasn’t there.

Still, what you notice is not always as big of a factor as it seems. While Liljegren was benched after two games in the playoffs, that is a very short sample size, and inexperience and nerves could easily have been a factor in his performance.

Liljegren often looks weak or lost in the defensive zone, but the numbers suggest that he is very successful regardless.  The JFresh card ranks him in the 72nd percentile, while the Athletic ranks him slightly higher.  This third measurement also shows he is an adept defender.

Three different sources, three different ways of measuring defense all come to the conclusion that however he looked, he was mostly successful.

What about the playoffs? Liljegren played in two blowout games in the playoffs then the coach took him out, despite the fact he was the team’s best statistical defenseman in the regular season.  The Leafs ended up losing by one goal in the seventh game, and this could very easily been a mistake by the coach, so too much should not be read into his benching.

At the same time, you watch how he plays down low close to the goalie, and you can see why Keefe did what he did.  This stuff isn’t an exact science, and when you add in the pressure to win, it’s easy to take out a rookie.   The big picture, however, is still very complimentary, even with his weaknesses.

Liljegren’s weaknesses would be:

• Puck Retrieval
• Strength
• Defensive play close to the goalie