It's a shame that after waiting so long to get back on the horse, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving dropped the ball again.
As every Toronto Maple Leafs fans must know by now, Brad Treliving has been on the job about 18 months without making a significant player-for-player trade. The ex-Flames GM botched it last time he made a major deal, setting the Florida Panthers up for back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals apperences and a Cup win.
He then appeared to be quite tentative to strike another deal, all but sitting out last year's trade deadline and not making a single major trade during his time as the Leafs GM.
He did trade Timothy Liljegren to the Sharks, and even though it more of a cap-dump than anything else (because the Leafs just stopped using him) it was and is a massive unforced error.
How is the player the Toronto Maple Leafs never should have given up on doing?
Trading a 25 year old right-handed defenseman with 200 games of NHL experience in which he uniformly won his minutes and made his team better is always going to be a stupid move.
Doing it so you could give more ice-time to the ancient and declining Oliver Ekman-Larsson is just so misguided it defies an ability to explain it without hyperbole.
Since trading their best top-four option, the Leafs have seen OEL score zero goals and two assists, while posting a 45% puck-possession rating and getting outsocred 8-3 while he's on the ice. Since he is so old and has been so unsuccessful the past few seasons playing in the top-four, the Leafs should have been able to see this coming, even though he had a very successful first few weeks with the team.
As for Liljegren, in 14 games with the Sharks, he has 3 goals, an assist, a 49% Corsi and the Sharks are winning his minutes 11-10. The Sharks are the worst team in the NHL, so his numbers aren't going to be good, however, for an idea of how he is playing we can look at his numbers relative to his teammates.
The Sharks do better in puck-possession, shots-for, scoring chances-for, dangerous scoring chances-for, expected goals and goals when Timothy Liljegren is on the ice. After Jake Wallman, he is clearly their best defenseman. And hs numbers would be even better, but he spends most of his time propping up Mario Ferarro, who is not so good.
Here is a list of Toronto Maple Leafs players with less goals this year than Timothy Liljegren: Pacioretty, OEL, Timmins, Robertson, Kampf, Domi, Reaves, McCabe, Tanev, Benoit.
You can also add in McMann, Lorentz, Knies and Rielly who have more goals in total, but less goals than Liljegren since he went to San Jose. This might not be one of the leafiest things of all-time, but it's up there!
Most trades takes years to fully understand. This one took a month - OEL is struggling, Liljegren is better than he is, and thriving with the Sharks. End of story.