Leadership group in Toronto believes that a young Leaf deserves an expanded role this season

In this year's pre-season, the Maple Leafs have been trying to add one more leader into the fold. It's not someone who you might have necessarily thought of as a leader either; Timothy Liljegren. The former 1st round pick from the 2017 NHL Entry Draft is entering the year with high hopes and more opportunity than ever before. On top of all that, the current leadership group has wanted to see the defenseman step up and take on a bigger role, and in doing so, have given him the honour of wearing the "A" on his sweater.

Tonight's game is the second of the preseason where Liljegren has been given that opportunity and the Leafs' head coach explained exactly why that has come about:

"I've talked to some of his teammates, who are part of the leadership group, they want to see him step up & take a greater role ... & have a voice in the leadership too," said Sheldon Keefe.

Liljegren has been a part of the "future" ever since being drafted just one year after Auston Matthews, and over the last 2 seasons, he has shown flashes of that. He has 11 goals and 41 points across 128 games, including a career-high 67 games and 17:55 ATOI in 2022-23. With the departure of Rasmus Sandin and the Leafs not necessarily adding to the fold over the summer, a part of that plan was for players like Liljegren to take that much needed next step.

The coaching staff and his teammates have noticed the change in his game and fully understand that he is capable of so much more responsibility, hence wearing the "A" during these pre-season games.

He has skated over 22 minutes a night in 3 pre-season games so far and last night's performance against the Montreal Canadiens is a good example of added responsibility with his team-high 24:16 TOI. He's going to have plenty of veterans ahead of him on the depth chart, but that also means that he'll have some excellent teammates to learn from as he continues to grow into his expanded role with the team.