Sheldon Keefe highly complementary of one of his young blueliners after massive OT win over the Rangers

After what seemed like a decade in the AHL with the Marlies, last season, Liljegren took a massive step forward in his development during the regular season, particularly after being paired with Mark Giordano, but was unfortunately a scratch for much of the series against Tampa. In the off-season, Kyle Dubas said that both he and Rasmus Sandin were big parts of the Leafs' future on the blueline before signing them both to identical 2-year, $1.4M per season contracts.

Following last night's massive home win in OT, Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe gushed about Liljegren's play this season, praising him for sticking with it and rising to the occasion to meet the hefty demands placed upon him by the Leafs' development staff as well as its coaching staff.

Liljegren has very quietly taken another massive leap in his development this year and has become arguably the Leafs' best defenseman. Through 38 games, he has 4 goals and 13 points, but it isn't the points that have made him their best defenseman, but his defensive play. At 5-on-5 and among defensemen that have played 400 minutes this season, Liljegren ranks third in on-ice goals percentage (69.5), and twelfth in on-ice expected goals percentage (57.3). Over his last 8 games, he hasn't been on for a 5v5 goal against and has been on for just 13 goals against 5v5 so far through this entire season. Only John Marino has been on for less goals against per minute this season.

Going back to the beginning of last season, there are only five players that have played more 5v5 minutes than Liljegren that have a better goals for percentage (Grzelcyk, McAvoy, Toews, Makar, Spurgeon) while only three players have played more 5v5 minutes and have a better expected goals for percentage (Grzelcyk, McAvoy, Slavin) than Liljegren.

He may not ever be a 50 point-per-season defenseman, but Liljegren's defensive play has grown leaps and bounds over the past two seasons. Now playing top-4 minutes and sometimes even top pairing minutes, Liljegren has done an excellent job of adjusting to tougher minutes, while keeping his game simple. He has gained the trust of Keefe and has now taken a prominent role on the penalty kill and on the second powerplay unit.

Liljegren is eligible for a contract extension come July first, and the Leafs should certainly explore the option of signing him to one sooner than later (after they take care of Auston Matthews of course).