The Toronto Maple Leafs Secretly Most Important Player

I was talking Toronto Maple Leafs hockey with a friend the other day and he told me that Easton Cowan just isn't ready. He espoused his beliefs about rushing prospects and ruining them, and was deaf to my protests about clichés and about retroactively confirming what you already thought.

Then, two second later, he looked me dead in the eye and said Timothy Liljegren, the Toronto Maple Leafs former first rounder who is now just 25 year-old, is a bust.

So you can't rush guys, but if you take your time and develop them slowly, just when they are getting good, your patience is up and you want to move on.

I love my friend, but he drives me crazy with this nonsense!

The Toronto Maple Leafs Secretly Most Important Player

The Leafs blue-line is old. Except for Timothy Liljegren, every single player in their top six has already had their best NHL season.

Now, the blue-line also has an intriguing mix of puck-movers and physicality, and it has a lot of good players. I think Riely and Tanev are exciting to have on the team, and most teams don't have a fourth D as good as Jake Mcabe.

So I'm not saying the blue-line is crap, I'm just saying it's not that good. It lacks a high-end player. Jake McCabe is going to be the three, not the four, and there is a chance that Oliver Ekman-Larsson gets played ahead of Liljegren. All that stuff is bad, but not overcomeable.

And the reason it isn't, is because of Timothy Liljegren. Sure, he's not the star people hoped he'd be, but realistically, that was never an option for him. What he is, is the kind of player that routinely gets underrated in the NHL: a good puck mover who wins his minutes but doesn't score a lot or hit at all.

Without the sick plays and the big hits, players get ignored. That's just the way it is. But he has developed to the point where he is much better than you'd expected from a late first round pick. The Leafs developed him super-slowly, like cooking a roast in the crock-pot for seventeen hours, but now he's tender and delicious. It's time to serve this dish hot, not feed it to the dog!

Liljegren has posted good to great numbers so far in his NHL career, and though most of that has been on the third pairing, he has been one of the best third-pairing guys in the NHL. Also, last year his most common linemate was Auston Matthews, so he's clearly getting more minutes at the top of the lineup than he gets credit for.

Liljegren has posted Expected Goals ratings of 60%, 53% and 53%, respectively, over the last three years. Those numbers mean the Leafs win when he plays. Those are GREAT numbers.

Furthermore, last year Auston Mattews was a 59% Expected Goals player with Liljegren on the ice with him, and a 54% player without. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Therefore, I think it's quite clear that with no other defenseman with any upside whatsoever, Timothy Liljegren is a massive part of the upcoming season, has no chance of being traded and should see a regular role in the top four.