Confirmed with Link: Leafs Trade: Liljegren to San Jose for Matt Benning, 3rd and 6th

[thewave]

Only thing they have in common is their both are Swedish and sucked playing in Toronto, it’s irrelevant what Lilly does elsewhere if he can’t do it here. Both Brodie and Lilly gone in a calendar year, how lucky are we……….

Doesn't the fact we can't develop good D or Cs or Gs scare the crap out of you? It does me man.

 

[rumman]

Hopefully Benning pushes Timmins down

How hard can that be? Timmins next D on the trading block………

 

[thewave]

So the last domino falls of the Leafs "future elite D" of Liljegren, Holl, Sandin and Dermott.

Lets keep turning the page on this organization's horrific track record of developing D.

Exactly. Dubas left an unmitigated disaster. That guy very likely could have been something good developed in other hands.

 

[rumman]

Doesn't the fact we can't develop good D or Cs or Gs scare the crap out of you? It does me man.

Leafs develop good players, but usually trade them away, this is not that case, Lilly was useless here, glad he and his 3 mil overpayment are history………

 

[rumman]

Really gotta question why they even signed him to that deal

It was a stupid move, but Tre fixed that by trading his ass outta town……..

 

[rumman]

Always liked Jim Benning, he’s a little old now, but Liligren sucks, so it’s a good trade

Wonder if Fred’s available too?

I'm not going to pull punches.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Indeed…….

 

[rumman]

Sharks fan here. He got injured last year and it seemed as though he was still knocking the rust off with us. Had been sat recently for Jack Thompson, a young RHD that we called up, but then got back in the lineup the past few games. He was our bottom pairing RHD and we have the worst defense in the league, so I wouldn't have much of an expectation from him. Sounds like just a straight cap dump and you needed a RHD in return for the deal (not unlike the Ceci deal we did with Edmonton in the offseason).

Curious about why you're all down on him. I know Toronto is not known for having good defenders in general, but what are his struggles and are there things that he does well? I wouldn't expect we'd be getting a player without issues back given how little we gave up.

Sadly you’ll find out soon enough that Lilly is scared of his own shadow when opposing forwards get physical, guy can’t be trusted very little upside………

That pick will come in handy at the deadline too when we load up, as will the cap space.

Some takes here remind me of a kid who’s spent his allowance two days before he gets it. Have any trade deadline acquisition ever worked out in helping the Leafs find success in the playoffs in the last decade?

 

[rumman]

We're still at 23 players so someone will have to get waived to activate anyone.

Myers will be one of them if they don’t wave Benning……….

 

[rumman]

Mark Hunter you stunk at your NHL job and now can't find another one

The guy owns a very successful OHL franchise, pretty sure he’s busy enough, rich enough, and content enough without adding the title of NHL GM to his resume. Your pettiness speaks volumes, and it’s really funny he’s in your head so much………

Good trade. On the bright side for the stat nerds, he's finally a top 4 defenseman!

Hope he enjoys the weather, don’t see him thriving even on a bottom feeder……….

 

[francis246]

They now need to have Timmins on the bottom pair because none of the other 3 can handle or pass the puck.

This is just hyperbole. This year the bottom pairing hasn’t really had an issue moving the puck.

And in your other post you talk about puck movement is your main reason why you’re mad about the Liljegren trade. Liljegren is great at that during the regular season and absolutely dog shit at it in the playoffs when there is a forecheck. So that point is moot. He can’t move the puck effectively when he’s being pressured and results in bad turnovers. Like I said he cost us game 3 last year, a game where we had momentum because he couldn’t handle a bit of pressure behind the net and sent an absolute grenade to Edmunson. There’s countless other examples of this in the playoffs during his time and hence why he was constantly scratched in prior years.

 

[francis246]

Benning will be buried in the minors. It’s a straight up salary dump of Liljegren. Not many teams around the league are dumping mobile 25 year old right shot D men for cap space. Leave it to the leafs. Obviously Liljegren did something to piss off management. His giveaway against Florida costing them the series losing OT goal in the ‘23 playoffs might be a factor. That being said it was a 5 game series and the leafs were never going to win.

His give away in ‘24 playoffs that cost us game 3 against Boston is another factor.

 

[NCoRe]

Not a fan of this, though I understand the situation. We've locked in with our guys on D and thats a choice they made, but I would've chose differently. Still couple of picks are decent

 

[Fonzieleaf]

Pretty good haul for him. He had a lot of promise early in his career but he just couldn't figure it out here. Guys like Timmins and Myers are ahead of him in the lineup so he's being regularly scratched. No point in him sticking around and taking up cap. Also, Hakanpaa is set to come off the LTIR as early as tomorrow so they need the cap space for him to be activated. Probably Dewar and Mermis as well.

Good luck to Lily in San Jose.

EDIT: Also, we have acquired 1.75 million in cap space with the loss of Lily and the addition of Benning (which I know nothing about).

 

[Nineteen67]

Much needed cap space.

Wish him well.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Not a fan of this, though I understand the situation. We've locked in with our guys on D and thats a choice they made, but I would've chose differently. Still couple of picks are decent

For him to be a success in the NHL, he has to skate much better to move with the puck. He was too easy to forechek, too weak ìn front of net, too weak along the boards. He had same problem as R Sandìn.

 

[Nineteen67]

Benning has good advanced stats and terrible real stats.

I like the trade because it cleared some cap space for next year (or this year if we use it).

Am slightly worried Liljegren will figure it out, but good job for now.

What do the advance stats say? He was OK in Nashville but nothing memorable.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Disappointing return. Seems as if we traded him at the worst possible time, after we tanked his value by signing him to a bad contract and then not playing him.
I was okay with moving on in the offseason, but since we made the decision to re-sign and hold onto him, we should have given him more than 1 game.
Especially with some of the struggles some of our other depth defensemen are having.

 

[Leafsfan74]

I think Brad should be given full credit for his patience in this instance (I'm sure the Maatta trade had both sides sweating a bit). When another team wants a player they believe will fit well in their system, you create a true win/win by being patient and receiving full value.

I didn't like the $3M extension but I approve (lol) the trade.

Disappointing return. Seems as if we traded him at the worst possible time, after we tanked his value by signing him to a bad contract and then not playing him.
I was okay with moving on in the offseason, but since we made the decision to re-sign and hold onto him, we should have given him more than 1 game.
Especially with some of the struggles some of our other depth defensemen are having.

Cap space has immense value, especially for a team like the leafs who will always be against the cap until (and if they) move away from their albatrosses.

He wasn't ever going to be a top 4 D Man here, this was clear. His instrinsic value was in potential, his age and the fact he is a right handed shot. I am surprised he was able to get a couple of picks while shaving almost $2M off the cap.

 

[Macallan18]

Disappointing return. Seems as if we traded him at the worst possible time, after we tanked his value by signing him to a bad contract and then not playing him.
I was okay with moving on in the offseason, but since we made the decision to re-sign and hold onto him, we should have given him more than 1 game.
Especially with some of the struggles some of our other depth defensemen are having.

This was an amazing example of horrendous asset management.
Berube being critical of Lily and not playing him tanked his value.
Treliving is an idiot for not telling Berube to play him so that he could be moved for a proper asset.
Benning is another (injured) 7th defenceman.
oh well.

What do the advance stats say? He was OK in Nashville but nothing memorable.

may have been injured, had major surgery December 2023, lets hope he can recover faster than Haakanslash.

 

[Macallan18]

Myers will be one of them if they don’t wave Benning……….

Myers looked almost as overmatched with the Leafs as Benoit.
Keystone cops level.

 

[notbias]

What do the advance stats say? He was OK in Nashville but nothing memorable.

Just that when he is on the ice, the team is driving play more than when he is off the ice, still not good numbers, just better than his teammates.

But in reality he has been scored on a lot and hasn't helped offensively.

He has the worst PDO on his team (.903).

On ice shooting % is 2.56%, the sv% when he is on the ice is .877%.

For reference, I think Nylander has been fortunate this year, his PDO is 1.114, his on ice shooting % is 16.67% and his on ice sv% is .947%.

I don't know how good he's actually been playing, but the numbers suggest better than the results.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Disappointing return. Seems as if we traded him at the worst possible time, after we tanked his value by signing him to a bad contract and then not playing him.
I was okay with moving on in the offseason, but since we made the decision to re-sign and hold onto him, we should have given him more than 1 game.
Especially with some of the struggles some of our other depth defensemen are having.

Liljegren and all players control their own value. I'm surprised Tre got this much for him. As of now he does not project to be a ln NHL player.

 

[conFABulator]

Sam Pollock won 9 Stanley Cups. He knew something about building a winning hockey team. He said that a team may not always know what they are receiving in a trade, but they had better be absolutely certain they know what they are giving up.

I agree that Lilegren's value was likely higher a couple of years ago, but I understand why the Leafs were unwilling to give him up earlier, For me, the final nail in the coffin was his poor play in last year's playoffs.

All of this. If we can't count on him in the playoffs, why keep him? At $3M he had to go. His value may have been higher at some earlier point but how much higher? It wasn't worth trading a 22 or 23 year old RD on a low money deal for a 2nd, was it?

So, we took a chance and kept trying to develop him and a new coach didn't see anything different. So, we get a 3rd and a 6th and Benning or whatever we get for Benning. The Lilly contract was structured to move with him being paid so much up front. Give the Leafs kudos for that and increasing his value a bit.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Liljegren and all players control their own value. I'm surprised Tre got this much for him. As of now he does not project to be a ln NHL player.

Liljegren is an NHL player, and contracts and not playing absolutely impact trade value.

 

[Leafs98]

Does this new guy kill penalties ?