The Maple Leafs are dealing with another injury on their back end as they announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Timothy Liljegren has been placed on LTIR with a high-ankle sprain, meaning he’ll miss at least the next 10 games and 24 days. Replacing him on the roster will be blueliners Max Lajoie and Simon Benoit who have been recalled from AHL Toronto.
Liljegren was injured on Thursday night late in the first period against Boston after being tripped by Bruins winger Brad Marchand. Following the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated that the early prognosis was that it wasn’t a short-term injury for the 24-year-old; this placement certainly cements that. Liljegren is averaging around 18 minutes a night on Toronto’s back end through the first ten games, good for fourth among Toronto’s blueliners. It’s a contract year for Liljegren who will be a restricted free agent next summer and an extended absence certainly wouldn’t help on that front.
The Maple Leafs are also without blueliners Jake McCabe and Conor Timmins. David Alter of The Hockey News mentions (Twitter link) that both rearguards skated before practice today but that Timmins – who is on LTIR himself – is still a long way away from returning to the lineup.
As for the recalls, Lajoie is in his first season with Toronto after signing with them in free agency this past summer. The 25-year-old has seen NHL action in each of the last five years, totaling 70 regular season games and a pair of playoff contests. This season, he has been held off the scoresheet in seven games with the Marlies but had 45 points in 70 games with AHL Chicago in 2022-23.
Benoit, meanwhile, was recalled three times back in October but didn’t play with the Maple Leafs. Going back and forth to and from the minors has also limited him to just two games so far with the Marlies. Last season, the 25-year-old had 10 points in 78 games with Anaheim while logging over 19 minutes a night.
This group of defenseman are terrible. It was a bad group before all the injuries now it’s getting ridiculous. Klingberg is absolutely terrible in both zones, and if they don’t fix this somehow and quick it will be another lost season. Craziest part is everyone knew this group was terrible and then they added Klingberg at 4.1 million early in free agency, I can’t understand what Treliving was thinking on this one.
All of Treliving’s additions have looked poor so far. Seems like his understanding of the roster and what was needed was severely lacking.
He replaced penalty killers with poor defensive forwards, forcing Matthews to the PK at the expense of 5v5 minutes. He replaced center depth with… *crickets* which required a failed Nylander experiment there and Kampf and Holmberg to be 3/4 C – God forbid one of them gets injured. The 4th line absolutely sucks and Reeves isn’t even “enforcing” any of the dirty stuff on the ice. Domi showed chemistry with Kines for precisely one period and Bertuzzi is in Keefe’s doghouse.
Maybe Dubas would’ve made better moves, maybe not. But the timing of the GM change was awful. Shanahan has to wear this one if it’s a lost season.
Get a grip.
On what?
So awesome that Timothy will miss the games in Sweden.
Where was Reaves? Where was Bertuzzi? Toronto is paying Bertuzzi 5 and a half million this season, I said a year ago Bertuzzi is a horrible investment.