"I Think Part Of That Was The Trade Deadline Hanging Over His Head': Maple Leafs' Sheldon Keefe Hopes Timothy Liljegren Struggles Are Behind Him
Struggling for stretches this season, the Maple Leafs simply need Timothy Liljegren to be at his best down the stretch.
MONTREAL — Timothy Liljegren has certainly had his moments this season. From admitting that his game has slipped at times, the Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman has been all over the lineup and at times looked out of place.
Perhaps there might have been a reason for that.
Over the last two years, the 24-year-old defenseman watched as the club bolstered their defense at the trade deadline. In his first full season with the Leafs in 2021-22, Liljegren was limited to just two out of the club's seven playoff games. In 2023, he played just five out of the club's 11 playoff games. Already in a battle for ice time, he kept moving down.
"It’s essentially pushed him out of the lineup, which I thought has affected his growth, his confidence and all those kind of things," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said following Toronto's 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. "I felt at the time that we did it out of necessity as we get deeper there."
And given his struggles and Toronto's need to find more right-shot defensemen, Liljegren could have been demoted again.
But outside of re-acquiring Ilya Lyubushkin, the Leafs didn't radically change things up on defense. Toronto added Joel Edmundson in a trade with the Washington Capitals on Thursday and paired him with Liljegren in Toronto's first game after the trade deadline.
"We’ve got a veteran player like Edmundson come in and that’s why it was important for Lily to play tonight," Keefe explained.. When Tre (Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving) built the team out, this is the six guys how it was built."
And the move came at the expense of benching popular defenseman Simon Benoit in what would have been his first game as a Leafs in his hometown.
So how did Liljegren fair on Saturday after the vote of confidence?
It's tough to say. Edmundson finished with the worst expected-goals percentage of any skaters against the Canadiens on Saturday but at times appeared to pass the eye test.
As for Liljegren, he took a holding penalty in the defensive zone that led to Montreal's second goal, which temporarily tied the game in the second period.
"I thought the sequence that led to his penalty was a tough moment in the game for him and for our team," Liljegren admitted. "Those are the things we’ve got to keep working with him to eliminate from his game. But I thought they (Edmundson and Liljegren) had a good first period for us and not just good after that. I think that will continue to grow."
Liljegren has two goals and 15 assists in 44 games this season. Keefe has lamented on his team's lack of right-shot depth and right now that's the Swede's biggest asset to the club. But it's on him now to prove to the team that there's more to his game beyond what side he shoots from.
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