Speculation: *Rifai vs. Liljegren. It's a thing and it's happening.

[The Iceman]

I have liked the play of Myers even more than Rafai.
Monster mean guy that can skate. RHD 6'6" should be our 7th D.

Reminds me a lot of a guy we had briefly and let him go Ben Hutton.
Never understood why we didnt find a way to keep him.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

I'm no fan of Liljegren either.

But I'm pretty sure he's better than Rifai. Maybe not by a whole lot though. And for a cap strapped team like the Leafs it ultimately comes down to value for these bottom of the roster chumps.

Who gives you more bang for your buck.

For example Liljegren is probably better than Benoit too. But I like what Benoit brings to the table more than what Liljegren provides. And for their current cap hits I'd rather have Benoit on the team.

At $3M Liljegren can't be the seventh.

That should be a vet who isn't gonna miss any development sitting for half the games. He should only step on the ice when one of the top six gets banged up too close to game time to replace him with a call up. Gio was perfect for that role.

So unless Liljegren takes a MASSIVE unexepected step this year I don't foresee good things in his future as a Leafs player.

 

[Macallan18]

6-7th round pick for Timmins would honestly be okay.

Timmins may end up our no. 6 dman, Berube likes him, the guy can skate, pass, shoot, setup a power play and he is big. Huge upside potential still.

 

[ULF_55]

Hakanpaa LTIR for 10 games isn't out of the question, is it? I'm sure he could use another 3 weeks rehab? Make a decision then. Regardless, we're looking at a very small sample size here. Especially with only 1 RH on the nights Rifai gets in.

I'm in the not wanting to give up on Liljegren yet camp. I really want to give him 1 more year. I agree however that he might be a cap casualty, but worried of selling low.

Rielly Tanev
Benoit McCabe
OEL Liljegren
Rifai



Pretty obvious Timmins is getting waived regardless. That $325K extra cap is probably the tie break between him and Rifai. Would he be taken? $1.1M for a 6 on a bad team isn't out of the question I guess?

Kind of worried about Tanev.

Habs ran him, pushed him around easily.

Tavares did the same thing in scrimmage/practice.


For clarity, Liljegren was taken out of line-up for Brodie for 1 game and immediately returned to the line-up the next game.

FYI: Rielly and Lyubuskin were on for the series losing goal.

 

[notbias]

Both were limited in what they can do, but size and strength won out for Benoit and I think we all felt better with him playing over Liljegren.

I didn't feel good when either were playing.

It's weird the "results matter" crew is now saying the player with the worst results was good.

 

[banks]

I no longer have any faith left in Liljegren. I just don't see any improvement over the last few years, and he only stands out for his mistakes.

I'd prefer Benoit and/or Rifai.

 

[Nineteen67]

I didn't feel good when either were playing.

It's weird the "results matter" crew is now saying the player with the worst results was good

It’s weird that the “fantasy league” crew can’t make a decision.

 

[notbias]

It’s weird that the “fantasy league” crew can’t make a decision.

I made one... they were both bad, in all metrics.

Liljegren was worst in advanced stats, and Benoit was worst in the real stats.

It's simple.

 

[Apex Predator]

Lily paired with Rafai and Benoit and Timmins paired together again. I think it’s more to do with Berube liking Timmins more than Lily. Rafai is 8th on the depth chart at best.