3 Players Toronto Maple Leafs Must Re-Sign This Offseason

No. 2: Timothy Liljegren

I feel like Liljegren has fallen in a similar category to Robertson, continuing to get unfair criticism throughout his tenure with the Leafs. However, when you watch the tape and breakdown his numbers, they're much better than you'd think.

Liljegren was arguably the Leafs second-best defenseman this year and continues to be a reliable right-shot defenseman that is very useful.

The one problem with being the Leafs second best defenseman is that he's not a top-two defenseman on a winning hockey team and needs to be slotted in a second or third pairing role to be most effective.

So with that being said, the Leafs would be silly to get rid of Liljegren, when he's still an RFA and will be very affordable. As mentioned, Liljegren isn't a defenseman that you want to build your roster around, but right-shot defenseman are hard to come by and he's not a player that is going to hurt your team.

Liljegren was the best defenseman at moving the puck up quickly and was the best skater, maybe next to Morgan Rielly, so he's not a player you want to give away for free.

The 25-year-old has continued to develop each year and seems to get better with age. With less than 200 NHL games under his belt, Liljegren will only get better next year and the Leafs would actually be best suited at signing him to a five-year extension, then they would letting him walk away.

Trust me, this is just the beginning of Liljegren's growth and he's going to be an impactful player on the blue-line for the next decade.