Maple Leafs Currently Dealing with a Concerning Blueline Issue Involving Timmins, Liljegren
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a bit of a blueline controversy on their hands at the moment, involving Timothy Liljegren and Conor Timmins.
In a recent article from Sportsnet's Luke Fox, a conundrum was presented regarding the team's blueline, which is largely set, minus a battle for who deserves to be the 3rd pairing right defenseman.
On one hand, the Leafs recently inked Liljegren to a 2-year extension, showing a tremendous amount of belief in his abilities. However, Liljegren has struggled during the pre-season and has left a lot to be desired during his games.
On the other hand, Timmins has really impressed during his time in training camp and has produced similar results to what Liljegren has produced, and at a fraction of the price.
Obviously, nobody knows quite yet which way the Leafs may go with this decision and if, potentially, one if these two defensemen is traded to open up some cap space. When it comes to Craig Berube, though, he seems to favour Timmins just a little bit more as training camp has grinded to a halt.
There appears to be a strong contrast in how Berube views Timmins to how he views Liljegren, given his comments about the former 1st round pick this week.
Liljegren recently admitted that he has not played his best hockey this pre-season. The eye test seems to be in line with Liljegren's admission that he needs to be better.
With the Leafs kicking off their pre-season in Montreal against the Canadiens on Wednesday, the Leafs will need to work towards finalizing their lineup in the coming days. At this stage, though, it would appear as though Timmins may have a leg up on the competition. Unfortunately, that could very well mean a trade scenario involving Liljegren as the team looks to become cap compliant.
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