Earlier this week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed in his written 32 Thoughts that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to move defenceman Timothy Liljegren.
This doesn’t come as a surprise, given Liljegren is currently sitting as a healthy scratch. With the additions of Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Jani Hakanpaa, other defencemen got pushed down the depth chart. The Leafs have been running with this defence core:
Reilly – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – McCabe
Benoit – Timmins
This leaves Liljegren and Philippe Myers as options on the outside. Once Jani Hakanpaa is healthy, there’s another defenceman in the pecking order.
In signing his 2-year, $3M AAV deal with the Leafs over the summer, there is no reason that Liljegren should be sitting as a healthy scratch. The Leafs are cap-compliant right now. But they’ll need to make space when Calle Jarnkrok, Connor Dewar and eventually Hakanpaa are healthy and ready to return to the lineup.
Liljegren provides the Leafs an opportunity to gain cap flexibility as well as get a good asset back in return. A young right-shot defenceman who is signed for multiple years is likely to generate around a third-round pick level return, if not more.
The San Jose Sharks seem like an ideal trading partner for Liljegren
The Sharks are in the midst of a rebuild and added some strong pieces over the summer. Their forward core looks quite interesting with the additions of Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Tyler Toffoli, Alex Wennberg, and Barclay Goodrow. Their defence still needs a lot of work, though.
The Sharks defence has got better with the swapping of Ty Emberson for Cody Ceci and acquiring Jake Walman, but it’s still among the league’s worst. Currently, the Sharks are lining up like this:
Walman – Ceci
Ferraro – Rutta
Thrun – Benning
The left side isn’t terrible by any means. But that right side is definitely the worst in the league. Straight up, it sucks. They are basically running three third-pairing guys on their right side at the moment.
The Sharks will need to plan for the future with Ceci and Rutta both UFAs and one or both likely dealt at the trade deadline. Enter Liljegren. At 25 years old, Liljegren would add some stability to the right side and give the Sharks a couple years to figure out if he’s a long-term fit. The Sharks are missing a premier RD prospect in their organization. So, adding a guy like Liljegren could help supplement that need. He would also add some puck-moving ability to an otherwise dull group.
The Sharks also have plenty of cap space available with $9.7M in room.
The return
In terms of actual players, the Sharks can’t offer much. Mikael Granlund is on an expiring deal, but is far too expensive and past his prime. Tyler Toffoli would make sense, but he’s also expensive and just signed in California.
The return would probably be picks or prospects, and the Sharks do own a second-round pick this year as well as two thirds.
From an asset management standpoint, giving up Liljegren for some mid-level picks isn’t the greatest. But at this point, they probably don’t have a choice. Signing him for $6M leaves them with little options.
One Comment