2:52 p.m.: Washington has announced the deal and sent the Golden Knights’ 2026 fourth-round pick the other way to complete it.
1:06 p.m.: The Capitals are acquiring defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Sharks, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. We’re still waiting on the return.
While San Jose is in a playoff race of their own, they have a bevy of pending unrestricted free agent blue-liners. Liljegren is one of them, and they were widely expected to ship multiple names from that group out today to continue recouping at least mid-level assets as they slowly emerge from the ashes of their rebuild.
Acquired from the Maple Leafs early last season, the Sharks have given Liljegren the longest leash of his career. A first-round pick by Toronto in 2017, he was never able to break into a top-four role there but is now averaging over 20 minutes per game in San Jose. Given how much he’s produced at lower levels, the Sharks were likely hoping for a bit more production than the seven goals and 28 points he provided in 110 games since October 2024.
Liljegren didn’t get much power-play time, though, especially this season, with Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg taking up those quarterback slots. With Klingberg being a potential extension candidate given his play and youngsters Shakir Mukhamadullin and Sam Dickinson pushing for more ice time moving forward, the 26-year-old Liljegren didn’t look like a long-term fit.
The move is a sign the Caps aren’t entirely punting on this season, even after trading away franchise defender John Carlson and center Nic Dowd for futures in the last couple of days. Washington’s playoff odds have slipped to a small but still tangible 21.3%, per MoneyPuck. They only find themselves four points out of a spot.
Liljegren could stick around past this season if there’s mutual interest in an extension. Matt Roy is now the only everyday NHL right-shot they have signed for next year, so assuming they shift one of their lefties over to their offside to make room for top prospect Cole Hutson to join the team from college in the coming days, as expected, there’s a hole that Liljegren fills in the Caps’ bottom four.
Image courtesy of Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images.
I’m sure Ovie and Wilson are thrilled about this. 😒
Is there some animosity? All I could find was Liljegren slew-footing Wilson in 2022.
Ovie and Wilson are not happy about Carlson being traded away.
Yes, they think the standings situation is great, it’s not their fault at all, GMs can only do one thing at a time. 🙄
I would bet they both understand. And at the Least OV would have mixed feeling as he marches towards 1,000 G.
Make no mistake! there is no one in the Caps Org that was happy to see Carlson go. The fact that no one was talking about it as a firm possibility tells me the the team had mixed feelings as well. And we need those draft picks especially in the net two drafts. We’re already leaning on the players that won out of AHL Championships at the NHL level. It’s time to grow the farm before we need to harvest
Lilly has always been that RHD that does nothing yet shows so much promise only to always get hurt just as he looks to be finally coming into his own
Swap in Sandin and LHD and this was a lot of Leafs fans a few years ago. I’ll trust the Caps FO on this one.
Carlson is a UFA. Could Caps resign him again?
Doubtful. They had been trying to negotiate an extension for months. It seems likely he wants a bigger role (and $$$) than the Caps were willing to offer, and that does not change after the trade was made. Time to move on
So the Kings trade an old fart and have a 33% chance of making the playoffs and they apparently have ‘given up on their season’ but the Caps trade their franchise defenseman with 21% playoff odds and they aren’t punting on the year?
Chychrun is their franchise defenseman now.
Yes but he hasn’t been for the past 15+ years.
Right, but they aren’t talking about playoff odds from the past 15 years.