Disgruntled Timothy Liljegren lands in the dog house in Toronto!
Elliotte Friedman provided more details on a possible trade on Friday. See what has happened to the young defenseman:
Earlier this week in his 32 Thoughts column on Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs have been actively trying to trade defenseman Timothy Liljegren for quite some time.
“Sounds like Toronto is working to find a landing spot for Timothy Liljegren,” Friedman wrote for Sportsnet earlier this week. “He’s down the depth chart, not a situation anyone is happy with.”
Liljegren has yet to play this season, sliding down the team’s depth chart that he’s now the 7th or even best 8th defenseman. Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Simon Benoit, Conor Timmins and Jani Hakanpaa all hold down spots above him in the Leafs’ defensive rankings.
On Friday in his 32 Thoughts podcast, Friedman provided some more details on Liljegren’s situation, explaining how the blue liner has landed in the dog house in Toronto, saying it’s pretty clear Timothy Liljegren has fallen out of favour in Toronto. Also says “it does sound like Toronto is pretty actively working on this” and “they are motivated to see if there’s something they can do”.
Drafted 17th overall by the Maple Leafs in 2017, Liljegren is still looking to find his footing in the NHL. He managed to earn a mostly full-time roster spot in 2021-22, recording five goals and 23 points in 61 games for Toronto. He followed that up with 18 points in 67 games in 2022-23 and put up 23 points in 55 contests last year.
Now that he’s lost the third-pairing job to Benoit and Timmins, he could certainly benefit from being treated better elsewhere, off a fresh start.
