Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Following two consecutive down seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and his career appeared to be on the decline as he was ultimately bought out by the Canucks following the 2022-23 season. Consequently, Ekman-Larsson landed with the Florida Panthers last season where he resurrected his career somewhat by playing sheltered minutes on a defensively-strong Panthers team. In the end, he played a key role in helping the Panthers capture the Stanley Cup.
This summer, the Leafs signed Ekman-Larsson to a huge (some would say ill-advised and ridiculous) four-year deal. So far in his first month with the Leafs, Ekman-Larsson has performed slightly beyond expectations. He is currently tied with Morgan Rielly for most points by a Leafs defenseman with six, along with being confidently utilized in all situations, whether it be on the power play, penalty kill or even strength.
OEL had a strong start to the year, but has fallen back to earth recently. Overall, he has been a huge surprise though because not much was expected.
Timothy Liljegren
Finally, we have the surprising inclusion of the now former Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren on this list. It wasn’t for the fact that he made significant contributions in helping the team win this past month. The surprise element came from the fact that the Leafs actually traded him away without even giving him a chance to really play this year.
After all, the Leafs had spent many years on the careful growth and development of the former first-round pick. More importantly, Liljegren has actually looked good in the past couple of seasons after being mentored by regular partner Mark Giordano along the way. In his past three years, Liljegren has put up 14 goals, 50 assists for 64 points in total. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)
Still at 25 years old, his prime years has yet to come. But because of the cap crunch, along with the falling out of favour with new head coach Craig Berube, Liljegren became the unexpected first casualty of the Leafs season. Sadly, this surprise could come back to haunt Toronto big time down the road.