Toronto Maple Leafs trade Timothy Liljegren to San Jose
The Toronto Maple Leafs have completed an early-season trade with the San Jose Sharks.
Timothy Liljegren is heading to San Jose in exchange for defenceman Matt Benning, a third-round pick in 2025, and a sixth-rounder in 2026.
Toronto will receive the better of two third-round picks the Sharks previously acquired from either Edmonton or Colorado.
Liljegren is a serviceable NHL defenceman but failed to live up to the first-round hype after Toronto took him 17th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft. He has scored 65 points in 197 games as a member of the Leafs since making his debut in the 2019-20 season.
The 25-year-old blueliner had been on the trade block for weeks, with reports filtering out about his availability earlier this month. Liljegren is set to earn $3 million per season this season and next before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
Liljegren has appeared in just one game this season, playing just 13:55 of ice time. He averaged 19:40 of ice time last season and scored 23 points in 55 games.
The Leafs save cap space in this deal, as Benning has two years left on a contract paying him just $1.25 million per season. That’s a salary that can be buried nearly entirely in the AHL, if he fails to crack Toronto’s NHL lineup.
Benning has 464 games of NHL experience with the Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, and San Jose Sharks. The 30-year-old has been used sparingly this season, ranking last in average ice time (13:02) among Sharks defencemen.
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- Leafs will have around $25 million in cap space to work with in offseason