Oilers have intriguing trade option in Leafs' Liljegren
Between now and the March 7 trade deadline, the expectation is that the Edmonton Oilers will be adding a defenceman to their roster.
As much as the Oilers improved up front thanks to the signings of Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, they were left with a bit of a hole on the back end following the departures of Cody Ceci, Vincent Desharnais, and Philip Broberg.
While not the sole reason, their lack of options on the blue line played a part in why the Oilers kicked their season off with a three-game losing streak.
The Oilers are currently rotating Travis Dermott and Troy Stecher in and out of the lineup for one another. While the latter had himself a solid game in the Oilers’ first win of the season last night, neither has inspired a ton of confidence from the coaching staff or the fan base.
That has resulted in some discussion about the front office targeting disgruntled Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren.
After sitting as a healthy scratch in the Leafs’ first three games of the season, there was plenty of trade speculation from well-informed insiders. Liljegren has since maintained that he wants to remain in Toronto, though that hasn’t helped quiet the outside noise.
The 25-year-old appeared in a career-high 55 games in 2023-24, scoring three goals and 23 points while averaging just under 20 minutes in ice time.
Though Liljegren’s play over his 196-game career has been frustratingly inconsistent, his analytics suggest there is still potential for him to become a very good NHLer.
Timothy Liljegren may be on the trade block.
Subject of a lot of consternation in TOR. Has always won his minutes handily in the regular season, including in a top four role last year. Always gets his minutes cut in the playoffs in favour of more physical D. pic.twitter.com/TMFE047ln4
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) October 11, 2024
What makes Liljegren an attractive option to the Oilers, aside from his potential, is the fact that he’s a right-hand shot. That side of the ice is where an upgrade is most needed, as they haven’t been able to come up with a replacement for Ceci.
The potential area of concern is his $3 million cap hit, which continues through the 2025-26 season. The Oilers do have $5.4 million in space at this time, but putting over half of it into a rather unproven asset in what is a Stanley-Cup-or-bust season would be a risk for general manager Stan Bowman.
Perhaps the Oilers’ win over the Philadelphia Flyers last night will calm things down for now, but if their struggles pick back up in the near future, the noise linking them to Liljegren is likely to increase.
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