The San Jose Sharks have acquired defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenseman Matt Benning, a 2025 third-round and 2026 sixth-round draft pick. Toronto will get the better of the third-round picks that San Jose previously acquired from the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche.
The move ends a tumultuous seven-year run for the 17th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Maple Leafs were patient with the 25-year-old, waiting for him to realize the potential that made him a first-round pick. Unfortunately for Toronto, that untapped potential never translated to results, as Liljegren could not crack Toronto’s top four on defense.
Liljegren was re-signed to a two-year $6MM contract back in late June, but despite the new contract, Liljegren quickly lost the trust of new head coach Craig Berube and general manager Brad Treliving. Liljegren has only dressed in one regular season game thus far and struggled mightily, as the Maple Leafs were out-chanced 21-2 while he was on the ice for 12 minutes of even-strength hockey.
Coming back the other way is 30-year-old depth defenseman Matt Benning. The Edmonton Alberta native is in the third year of a four-year $5MM contract, meaning that Toronto will realize a cap savings of $1.75MM in the transaction for this season and next. Benning is a useful defenseman who is just two years removed from his best offensive season as a pro (one goal and 23 assists in 77 games). While Benning will serve as valuable depth for Toronto, he is unlikely to see the kind of ice time he was seeing in San Jose and will most likely be Toronto’s eighth defenseman.
The third is conditional, curious what the condition is
Toronto will get the better of the third-round picks that San Jose previously acquired from the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche.
Article says they have 2 3rd rounders from Oilers and Avs coming and Leafs will get the best of the 2.
Article didn’t say that when I commented. It just said third
This is an insanely good trade for San jose. Benning was an absolute pylon, and Liljegren’s upside is way higher than the vast majority of players picked in the third round could ever hope to be.
Really curious to see where all the Mike Grier haters are these days, after a couple of really great Summers legitimately upgrading the team.
I’ve followed his entire career from his draft year and he had advanced puck moving skills then (he famously went end to end deking out all five Canadian skaters in the world juniors) and was in steadily in the top five mix for the first part of the season. He contracted mono, barely played the rest of the year and still went 17th. His skating and offensive skill took a nosedive and he didn’t develop a two way game as a pro. He was a better prospect at 17 than he is at 25 with hundreds of pro games under his belt. It’s just not going to happen for him, and you won’t find a bigger supporter than me, the all-around consistency and two way play just isn’t there. This isn’t to say he isn’t NHL caliber, which he certainly is, but there’s no untapped potential there because the potential didn’t even get a chance to form.
The sharks were very RD heavy, they badly needed more LD. If he even ends up top 6 I think this works well for them
Meh dude is 25 and couldn’t hack it in Toronto. Not sure what changes for him going to a worse situation
His possession metrics are excellent and Toronto is pretty stacked on D. San Jose has Cody freaking Ceci on their top D pairing.
The only legitimate Top 4 D on San Jose right now is Walman and mayyyyybe Ferraro, but Ceci, Rutta, Thrun, and, until he was traded, Benning are realistically all like 5-7 D guys on most other teams. I didn’t mention Vlasic because realistically, they should be paying him to sit in the press box and be a mentor between games.
So at present we sit with:
Walman – Ceci
Ferraro – Liljegren
Rutta – Thrun/Thompson
When Mukhamadullin is healthy and ready to roll, the D corps will suddenly look like an NHL group and not a collection of cast-offs. I think Thrun and Thompson have another gear too, they just need softer minutes to develop.
I should add too – on Fear The Fin, they speculated that Ferraro would go over for Liljegren. That we were able to ship out Benning, who is genuinely useless and was a healthy scratch on a team that went 0-7-2, is an act of wizardry. I don’t see the upside for Toronto, I would have paid another team just to take him.
The only upside for the Lafs is cap space, they traded for space and a depth player, a real depth player that probably gets waived or sent packing.
Maybe Haki is close to playing?
You definitely did not watch 1 Leafs game when Lilly pad played lol. But with that Sharks defence, he is an upgrade
Lilly’s problem was how easily he could be knocked off of the puck. It happened a lot during his time in Toronto and made him a liability in the playoffs. Berube was not going to live with that shortcoming.
When a player like Liljegren moves on I wish him the very best. He’ll get a lot of ice time in San Jose and maybe he will reach his projected ceiling.
I like what Toronto received in return for an unused player. It would not surprise me if Matt Benning is dealt as well.