It’s early, but the NHL rumour mill is already humming.
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Elliotte Friedman revealed a lot of interesting nuggets in his 32 Thoughts column on Wednesday, one of which being that the Toronto Maple Leafs are shopping defenceman Timothy Liljegren. If that’s true, then the Edmonton Oilers should be in on it.
Drafted 17th overall by the Maple Leafs in 2017, Liljegren took some time to find his footing in the NHL. He finally earned a mostly full-time roster spot in 2021-22, playing in 61 games for Toronto. He followed that up with 67 games in 2022-23 and 55 last year.
The 25-year-old Swede has often had trouble staying in the lineup for the Maple Leafs, be it due to injury or falling down the depth chart. That’s where Liljegren finds himself to start this season, losing the third-pairing job to Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins.
Just because he’s not in an NHL top six doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of it, though, and the Maple Leafs know that. The young righty has found himself crowded out by new Leafs Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev, and is on the outside looking in though no fault of his own.
The upshot is that he’s on the trading block, in a situation the Maple Leafs know well. When Liljegren first broke into the league, it was partly at the expense of fellow Swede Rasmus Sandin, despite Sandin’s superior numbers (an expected goals percentage of 58% in Toronto, per Natural Stat Trick). They traded Sandin to the Washington Capitals at the 2023 trade deadline, and had to overpay Ekman-Larsson to replace him in the lineup this past summer.
Liljegren has consistently put up good numbers with the Maple Leafs, garnering a career xG% of 55% and an actual goals% just over 57% in Toronto. That’s behind only Timmins, Sandin, Travis Dermott, and Mark Giordano among Leafs defencemen since 2021-22. Liljegren also took on more minutes per game than any of those players.
At 6’1″ and 200 pounds, Liljegren isn’t an imposing physical presence, and he’s not your traditional shutdown defender. But he’s a smart and steady player with some decent offensive instincts who drives play on both sides of the puck.
It’s understandable why the Leafs are rolling with Conor Timmins on the third pair — he’s big and has absolutely crushed the meagre minutes he’s played in Toronto. If it was him on the outside looking in, I’d be saying the Oilers should target him instead. But a Leaf was always going to shake loose from Toronto’s busy defence corps, and the Oilers should be prepared to jump at whoever it is.
There were always going to be questions on the Oilers’ blueline. Those questions aren’t going away after a disappointing performance in the season opener. In the first year of a two-year contract worth $3 million annually, Liljegren would fit within the Oilers’ salary cap for the next two years and still leave a little room to add another forward or a backup goalie later on in the season.
It’s often said that right handed defencemen are the most valuable commodity in the NHL, and among the hardest to acquire. If the Maple Leafs are trying to trade one away, especially a 25-year-old with a strong track record and more to offer, why shouldn’t the Oilers go after him?
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