Montreal Canadiens
It has been heavily speculated that the Montreal Canadiens are in the market for a right-shot defenseman. This stems from reports that fan-favorite Arber Xhekaj has fallen out of favor with Head Coach Martin St. Louis, after being a healthy scratch in back-to-back games this past week as well as some of his comments in the media.
There are complications to making this deal, the most obvious being the fact that the Habs and Leafs are long and historic rivals. If the two sides can get past this, there is some real potential for a deal to be found. Although, there are some issues relating to the cap but those can always be finagled and worked around.
The possible return depends on a wide variety of factors but the Canadiens have a lot of different assets that could be of value to the Leafs. If it's a hockey trade, Christian Dvorak could be an option for center depth. The team also has a number of prospects and picks, with12 choices alone in the 2025 NHL Draft and 21 in total over the next two years.
San Jose Sharks
The Sharks are firmly in year two of their rebuild and after being graced with the first overall pick in 2024, Macklin Celebrini, the future already looks bright. The team made moves in the off-season to make some marginal upgrades to their roster to hopefully escape the basement. They added the widely regarded top goaltending prospect in Russian Yaroslav Askarov, they also made some key additions in free agency; signing forwards Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg, as well as defencemen Cody Ceci and Jake Walman.
Timothy Liljegren is an acquisition that makes sense. He fits into their rebuilding timeline, fits their salary cap scheme with $7.5 million available. As well, the team has the requisite picks to make a deal work and they have the assets both on their roster and in the system. This makes them an ideal trade partner