It’s by no means straightforward to be a wholesome scratch within the NHL, however for Timothy Liljegren, each sport he sits within the press field may very well be amongst his final with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Regardless of signing a two-year contract extension within the low season, the 25-year-old’s future is something however sure, although he made his season debut within the Leafs’ most up-to-date sport, a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
Craig Berube initially described Liljegren’s efficiency as “high quality” earlier than telling reporters that he was “fairly strong.”
Liljegren’s stats after the sport definitely didn’t bounce off the web page. He performed 13:55, was penalized for a cross-check and the Leafs have been out-attempted 20-2 and outshot 8-2 when he was on the ice. That’s not precisely flattering for somebody who was enjoying in a sheltered position, however Liljegren is making an attempt to stand up to sport pace and keep away from making errors to remain within the lineup.
Toronto’s subsequent sport comes Saturday evening towards the New York Rangers, and a real measure of his sport and place on the crew may be discovered if he’s put into the lineup for a second straight outing.
When Berube took over as head coach, there have been questions on whether or not a defenceman like Liljegren would be capable of thrive with the calls for of a extra old-school teaching type.
As coaching camp progressed, it grew to become clear that Liljegren was not offering what his coach was on the lookout for.
“Lily’s gotta do issues faster. He’s acquired to be a bit bit heavier in his battles, transferring pucks faster and simplify his sport,” Berube defined on the time. “He’s clearly battling. He needs to be a man within the lineup each evening, and that’s nice. However typically you set an excessive amount of in your plate. Simplify the sport a bit bit extra. And do your job as a defenceman killing performs and being heavy.”
Sadly for Liljegren, different defencemen, particularly Conor Timmins, earned the coach’s belief, and as soon as Liljegren was not included within the opening evening lineup, commerce hypothesis ramped up.
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Whereas Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Leafs aren’t in a rush to commerce Liljegren and have burdened that the younger defenceman stays affected person for alternatives to play, there may be nonetheless a timeline the place some choices should be made.
Proper now, the Leafs don’t have a motive to commerce Liljegren, and holding him round provides some insurance coverage if the blue line suffers accidents. Nevertheless, the crew has to ultimately put together for the wage and roster crunch that’s coming.
Proper now, the Leafs have $5.25 million on long-term injured reserve with Calle Jarnkrok, Jani Hakanpaa, Connor Dewar and Dakota Mermis sidelined. The crew can achieve some cap area by sending some gamers all the way down to the minors, however ultimately, somebody’s wage should be moved off the books.
It will be powerful to justify holding Liljegren and his $3 million cap hit if he’s not going to be an everyday within the crew’s lineup.
This leads us to the apparent query… which groups can be the best commerce vacation spot for Liljegren?
Utah Hockey Membership
It was clear that the Utah Hockey Membership have been trying to hit the bottom working when the crew left Arizona.
A few trades for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino on the draft signalled that Utah was severe about being aggressive. Whereas there have been some nice success tales to date, there are some considerations for Utah.
After shedding its first sport of the season earlier this week towards the New Jersey Devils, the extra regarding information was the damage to defenceman Sean Durzi.
The 26-year-old left the crew’s sport towards the Devils with an upper-body damage and the analysis just isn’t a constructive one.
“It doesn’t appear like he’s going to be again anytime quickly,” GM Invoice Armstrong instructed KSL Sports activities radio. “We’re going to have extra younger guys bounce in and see what we will do right here.”
Within the crew’s first sport with out Durzi towards the Anaheim Geese, Sergachev performed 27:52, Ian Cole performed 24:46, Juuso Välimäki logged 22:30 and Michael Kesselring performed 21:38. That’s a whole lot of minutes for Utah’s high 4 defenders to grind by way of and it was in a shedding effort.
To make issues worse, Marino has been unable to swimsuit up and is predicted to overlook weeks with an upper-body damage.
It looks like the crew may profit from including a defenceman who will help ease the burden on the blue line, particularly one who can play on the suitable facet.
Proper now, Utah can be Toronto’s excellent buying and selling accomplice, contemplating the crew’s abundance of draft capital over the subsequent two years plus an abundance of cap area to not even want to fret about Liljegren’s cap hit this season and subsequent.
Dallas Stars
It’s handy that on the evening Liljegren made his return to the lineup, Stars GM Jim Nill was reportedly in attendance to look at the Leafs play the Kings.
The Stars had an energetic low season, however not in the best way that anybody would label as thrilling. After watching Chris Tanev and Hakanpaa depart to affix the Leafs, Dallas went out and signed Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin to two-year offers nicely over $3 million.
Dallas might be a great touchdown spot for Liljegren, given their lack of formidable choices on the suitable facet and Nils Lundkvist not residing as much as the expectations positioned on him after being acquired for a first-round choose. Possibly Liljegren can earn some enjoying time on a Stars crew that could be a contender for the Stanley Cup, however would in all probability wish to improve that blue line indirectly.
Possibly that is the place GM Brad Treliving has a dialog with Mark Leach, Toronto’s new director of novice scouting, who spent the previous 11 seasons with the Stars and may know a factor or two about their prospect pool.
Chicago Blackhawks
Whereas the Blackhawks are in a rebuilding interval with Connor Bedard, the crew has to ultimately begin to look ahead and push their manner out of the basement of the NHL standings.
Basic supervisor Kyle Davidson already added a few Liljegren’s former teammates, Tyler Bertuzzi, T.J. Brodie, and Ilya Mikheyev, however he may use some depth on the suitable facet of his defence.
Former first-round choose Kevin Korchinski was despatched again to the AHL in hopes of creating his sport, however for a crew like Chicago, it will be extra helpful to make use of among the draft capital on a participant who can contribute now relatively than roll the cube on a draft choose which will or could not prove.
Defenceman Alec Martinez may very well be a participant who will get moved forward of the commerce deadline, and Chicago has greater than sufficient draft picks (some that truly initially belonged to Toronto) to entice the Leafs to maneuver off of Liljegren.
The Blackhawks have the cap area to make a deal and will give a few of their youthful defencemen extra time to develop within the AHL.
Anaheim Geese
The Geese have been enjoying the lengthy sport the previous few seasons in an try and retool the roster and reportedly made an enormous push to attempt to land among the marquee free brokers this previous low season.
If the Geese can’t use the cap area to signal gamers, they may as nicely attempt to commerce for some. The crew additionally has some draft picks that may very well be in play if it needs to enter the Liljegren sweepstakes.
Cam Fowler’s future with the Geese stays up within the air because the veteran appears to get again on to a contending roster. Meantime, Radko Gudas is the lone right-shot defender with expertise on the blue line, and Liljegren can put himself in a beneficial place to play an even bigger position in Anaheim.
Buying and selling away Jamie Drysdale additionally depleted a little bit of the Geese’ high-end depth on the blue line, and whereas Liljegren doesn’t have the identical ceiling as Drysdale, he matches the route Anaheim is making an attempt to go.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas made it some extent to commerce for one in every of his former Leafs gamers in Michael Bunting, so what’s stopping him from making an attempt to see if he can land one other?
Properly, for starters, the Penguins aren’t flush with cap area except the crew finds a approach to shed some wage. On a hockey degree, what higher state of affairs for Liljegren to play than below the tutelage of countryman Erik Karlsson?
Pittsburgh may use some rapid assistance on the blue line and truly has the draft picks crucial to think about Liljegren as a commerce goal.
If Dubas can discover a approach to create some cap area, he isn’t one to shrink back from making a deal if it improves his membership. This isn’t a Penguins crew that wishes to be on the surface wanting in on the playoffs, they usually even have many query marks and holes to unravel to be able to get there.
Honourable point out Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets primarily make sense as a vacation spot as a result of they should add some wage and can be ready to take a participant like Liljegren as a rebuild challenge.
Columbus has over $21 million in cap area at the moment, however not an entire lot of draft picks that might be attractive in a commerce except there’s a bundle with prospects the Leafs would think about.
