Rumours circulating suggest that Toronto Maple Leafs blueliner Timothy Liljegren could be traded at any moment. Gven how much Liljegrens’ role with the Leafs has been questioned recently, there could be some truth to these rumblings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have seemingly moved beyond Liljegren and don't need a $3 million cap-hit in the press box watching games.
First, it’s worth getting the obvious out of the way. Liljegren trade rumours are nothing new. According to Jonas Siegel at The Athletic, the Leafs desire to move Liljegren is longstanding. In fact, Siegel has suggested that the Leafs were looking to trade Liljegren during the summer. But nothing materialized.
Instead, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Liljegren to a two-year extension. That should have put rumours to rest, right? Well, not so fast. Since training camp, Timothy Liljegren has fallen down the depth chart behind Conor Timmins and Phillippe Myers, which seems like bad management more than anything the player himself did.
Rumour Alert: Toronto Maple Leafs trying to move Timothy Liljegren
Despite the Leafs having a clear need for a young, right-handed, puck-moving defenseman that consistently wins his minutes, they have let their biased preference for extremely large players cloud their judgement.
According to Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs are working to move the player because "no one is happy" with the current situation.
Unfortunately, the Leafs should not expect to get much for Liljegren. In the best of case, a mid-level prospect or a couple of late-round draft picks could be coming back. The Leafs might want to get more, but teams aren't going to line up to pay for a player that keeps getting healthy-scratched.
Players who can skate, move the puck, play the right side, and be at home on any pairing are a lot rarer than you'd think, and the Leafs frustration with Liljegren is curious since he has very strong numbers over the course of his career.
The Leafs have a perfectly good player who has a history of 200 successful NHL games where he has won his minutes whenever being deployed. The team has mismanaged this asset and now will likely lose him for nothing and act happy to get the cap space back. Good luck finding better value than Liljegren at $3 million.
Trading Liljegren now will almost certainly turn out to be one of those regrettable decisions the Leafs have made on younger players in the past.