Over the last few days, the Toronto Maple Leafs have put several players on waivers or returned players to their junior teams. With the Maple Leafs signing forwards Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz to one-year contracts, the opening night roster has taken shape.
Despite most of the forward group and most of the defence corps staying intact after offseason moves, there were still several surprises post-training camp. Let’s take a look at the players that did not have as strong of a training camp as expected.
Timothy Liljegren
Despite Timothy Liljegren signing a two-year contract extension with a $3M AAV, Liljegren is another player who is entering a make-or-break season. Liljegren is already 25, where he should be starting to hit his stride. While he reached his career high in points of 23 last season in six fewer games, it is still below what his potential is often thought to be.
When Liljegren was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the 2017 NHL Draft, he was thought to be an offensive-minded defenceman who could quarterback the power play and possessed tremendous puck-moving ability and smooth skating. However, at the NHL level, this has not been the case.
Liljegren only has 14 goals and 51 assists for 65 points in 196 NHL games. His playoff performance looks even worse with one assist in 13 career playoff games. Furthermore, Liljegren has often been scratched come playoff time, either due to injuries or due to the fact his game does not translate well in the playoffs. Liljegren does not play a physical game and has been known to make gaffs in the defensive zone. As a result, opposing teams often target Liljegren.
What is frustrating with Liljegren is that he shows flashes of his potential. For example, when Morgan Rielly was injured for a stretch of games last season, Liljegren quarterbacked the power play in Rielly’s stead quite well. However, Liljegren is often relegated to the third pairing due to being unreliable defensively and not producing much offence.
Based on this history, it isn’t a stretch to say Liljegren should have been poised to dominate training camp this year, especially after signing the two-year extension. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Liljegren had no points in the three preseason games he played. He had three giveaways and zero takeaways. And what has stood out most, is that he did not generate many offensive chances and overcomplicated his play. Berube has criticized Liljegren’s play this preseason.
“Lily’s gotta do things quicker. He’s got to be a little bit heavier in his battles, moving pucks quicker and simplify his game. He’s obviously battling. He wants to be a guy in the lineup every night, and that’s great. But sometimes you put too much on your plate. Simplify the game a little bit more. And do your job as a defenceman killing plays and being heavy,” the coach said.
It appears that Maple Leafs management has very little patience left with Liljegren, with him seemingly being the seventh defenceman heading into opening night. What was excitement when drafting Liljegren in 2017 has now turned into disappointment among Maple Leafs fans. Nevertheless, it appears that Liljegren’s days may be numbered in Toronto.
Easton Cowan
Going into training camp, Easton Cowan was the most talked about Maple Leafs prospect, and it’s easy to see why. Cowan finished the regular season with 34 goals and 62 assists for 96 points in 54 games with the London Knights. Notably, Cowan finished the regular season with a 36-game point streak, the longest in London Knights history, and 19 games away from the OHL point streak holder, former Maple Leafs legend Doug Gilmour with 55 in the 1982–83 season.
In his playoffs, Cowan finished with 10 goals and 24 assists for 34 points in 18 games. After winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup and being named the OHL playoff MVP, there was talk about Cowan playing for the Maple Leafs full-time this upcoming season. And what’s not to like about Cowan’s game? Head coach Craig Berube refers to Cowan as a “worker that can produce”.
However, production was not a strong suit of Cowan’s game this preseason. In the five preseason games that Cowan played, he only had two assists and was held without a shot on goal the last two preseason games. While Cowan had an assist on a power play against the Detroit Red Wings in a 2–0 win, Cowan seemed to struggle on the power play. When entering the zone, he thought he had more time and space than he did, resulting in him getting checked or stripped of the puck.
He also had six giveaways over the five games, notably one against the Detroit Red Wings in which Nicholas Robertson rushed back to break it up and ended up scoring on the ensuing odd man rush.
You can see the kid’s motor and speed on the ice. However, it appears that Cowan is focusing too much on trying to show that he doesn’t have “junior habits”, something Berube mentioned earlier in training camp, instead of playing more freely like in 2023–24 training camp.
The Maple Leafs provided Cowan with an extended look, surviving the initial cuts to the roster, and staying with the team until the end of the preseason. With the Maple Leafs loaning Cowan to the London Knights, he will have a chance to get bigger and stronger, and take what he has learned in this training camp to dominate the OHL and improve his game this upcoming season.
Bobby McMann
If you said Bobby McMann would be a lock for the top nine with the Maple Leafs at the beginning of last year, most Maple Leafs fans wouldn’t even recognize his name. But to the credit of McMann, he scored 21 goals and eight assists for 29 points in 30 games for the Toronto Marlies before being called up by the Maple Leafs last season. He also scored 24 goals with the Marlies the year prior.
McMann would win the hearts of Leaf Nation in February when he posted a hat trick against the St. Louis Blues. Two games later, he scored two more goals against the Anaheim Ducks. His goal-scoring, as well as his blue-collar play style, earned him a two-year contract extension with a $1.35M AAV. He ended up the year with 15 goals, nine assists for 24 points in 56 games, largely playing third-line minutes.
Coming off of a season-ending injury and heading into camp, McMann was slotted for possibly a top-six role, in competition with Matthew Knies and Nicholas Robertson. However, training camp did not go in McMann’s favour.
McMann played four preseason games, and despite registering 13 shots on net, he did not record any points. Perhaps one of the few positives to his preseason was that he was physical, registering 10 hits among these games. Berube also offered criticism of McMann’s preseason.
“There’s more there. I know that. Bobby knows that. I felt like maybe he was a little hesitant at times. He’s a great skater. Good size. Power forward out there. I’m not too worried about it,” he said.
The McMann we saw in the preseason was not the McMann we have seen before. Hopefully, McMann can bring the same level of intensity and goal-scoring he had last season. The Maple Leafs desperately need secondary scoring and McMann is a big part of that depth.
