The Toronto Maple Leafs traded defenseman Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks for blue-liner Matt Benning, a conditional 2025 third-round pick, and a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Toronto will receive the better of San Jose's two third-round picks, which originally belonged to the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. The Sharks sent their own 2025 third-rounder to the Vegas Golden Knights as part of the 2024 Tomas Hertl trade.
Liljegren had fallen out of favor with the Maple Leafs this season under new head coach Craig Berube, being a healthy scratch in all but one game. The 25-year-old played top-four minutes for most of the 2023-24 campaign.
In the previous three seasons, Liljegren averaged 29 points per 82 games while logging 17:56 per contest. He won his minutes handily in that time, with the Maple Leafs controlling 56.4% of the expected goals and 57.8% of the actual goals with him on the ice at five-on-five, per Evolving-Hockey.
However, Liljegren routinely lost the trust of former Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe when the playoffs rolled around, dressing in only 13 of Toronto's 25 postseason games over the last three years.
The Maple Leafs signed Liljegren to a two-year, $6-million contract this past offseason, and he'll be an unrestricted free agent in 2026. His $3-million cap hit proved to be too expensive for a No. 7 defenseman, especially since the Maple Leafs are up against the cap and anticipating forwards Calle Jarnkrok ($2.1M cap hit) and Connor Dewar ($1.18M cap hit) and defenseman Jani Hakanpaa ($1.47M cap hit) coming off LTIR this season.
A first-round pick by the Maple Leafs in 2017, Liljegren should get a chance to play more frequently for the last-place Sharks, who have been deploying Cody Ceci, Jan Rutta, and Henry Thrun on the right side of their blue line. Liljegren could challenge for top-pairing minutes.
He thanked the city of Toronto and the Maple Leafs organization on Instagram.
Benning gives the Maple Leafs depth on the blue line for a more cost-efficient $1.25-million cap hit through 2025-26. The 30-year-old has been a third-pairing defenseman for most of his nine-year NHL career during stops in Edmonton, Nashville, and San Jose.
Benning shoots right and is listed at 6-foot-1, 203 pounds. His most productive season came in 2022-23 when he tallied 24 points in 77 games while averaging a career-high 19:47 for the Sharks.
The draft picks give the Maple Leafs added trade ammunition as they project to be buyers at the deadline. Toronto still only has nine selections over the next two years.
