Disaster in Utah may open trade window for the Maple Leafs.

A rather unfortunate situation for the Utah Hockey Club may open the door to an opportunity for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Since the preseason, the name of Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren has been bandied about the rumor mill with most believing that the Leafs will eventually look to move on from Liljegren on a permanent basis. Liljegren has been held out of the lineup for the majority of games this season with newly appointed head coach Craig Berube clearly not feeling that Liljegren is a good fit for the system of hockey he wants to deploy.

The problem for the Maple Leafs has been that Liljegren, currently in the first year of a two year deal that carries an average annual value and cap hit of $3 million per season, won't be easy for any team looking to acquire him to fit under the National Hockey League's salary cap.

What it would likely take is a team to suddenly, and unexpectedly, find themselves in desperate need of a defenseman and that may very well be the case for the NHL's newest team, the Utah Hockey Club.

Utah HC has lost two of their core defensemen to injury to start the season with both John Marino and Sean Durzi expected to be out for a while, and in the case of Durzi things are sounding truly dire. On Monday, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman provided some insight on just how bad the Durzi situation truly is.

"I heard four, five months for Durzi," revealed Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. 

The Marino situation isn't quite as bad, but it's still bad.

"I think their update this week was its still not close," said Friedman.

Although Friedman made no mention of the Maple Leafs, he did indicate his belief that teams around the league may look to take advantage of Utah's run of bad luck to start the season. The Maple Leafs, who look like a team trying to unload a defenseman, could certainly fit that description.

"You know what happens at that point in time," said Friedman. "The vultures start circling 'Ahhh you need a defenseman, you're short some guys, what can we separate you from that we value in return for a defenseman?'"

Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving has a reputation for checking in on just about every trade possibility at any given time during an NHL season, and this could very well be one that proves valuable to investigate from the perspective of the Maple Leafs.