Speculation: *Rifai vs. Liljegren. Rifai Clears. Liljegren healthy scratch.

[Apex Predator]

I would be surprised if Rifai is claimed. 26 year old with 2 NHL games. This time of the year everyone is trying to squeeze their guys to the minors.

 

[Strangle]

68% to 32%

Decisive.

The only polls you can trust on this site are not in the ‘polls’ section of the website

 

[Leaf Rocket]

THE WINNER IS....

 

[Tak7]

It’s the result everyone without a weird Liljegren hate obsession was expecting. Lily isn’t perfect, and he’s definitely a guy who leaves you wanting more in terms of potential vs reality, but he’s clearly better than Rifai, it’s not that close.

Is he $2m better than the guys he's competing against?
For me, he isn't.
It's crazy that they went from wanting to trade him, to signing him to $3m x 2, all within a matter of days.
The Samsonov arbitration award really scared the hell out of them and they panicked.

 

[ULF_55]

Is he $2m better than the guys he's competing against?
For me, he isn't.
It's crazy that they went from wanting to trade him, to signing him to $3m x 2, all within a matter of days.
The Samsonov arbitration award really scared the hell out of them and they panicked.

It would be nice if that was the way it worked.

Too bad the NHL doesn't permit performance based compensation.

Goals * y$
Assists * x$
Save Percentage * w$

et cetera.

Union Step approach + performance money ...

We won't get into tax ratio.

 

[stickty111]

Looks like this wasn't a "thing" after all. What is still a thing is Leafs valuing an NHL d man in Lilly over an AHL d man in Rifai. Of course they might still trade Lilly, but it won't be to make room for Rifai.
#closethread

 

[stickty111]

Rifai clears. Not a surprise. Good for the Marlies

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Rifai clears! This opens up all sorts of discussion and elite speculation.


Working title of this thread:

"Rifai on Liljegren's heals thread"

 

[ULF_55]

Rifai clears! This opens up all sorts of discussion and elite speculation.


Working title of this thread:

"Rifai on Liljegren's heals thread"

Timmins and Rifai throw down.
Winner to face Liljegren.

 

[Roo]

Good to see he's cleared.

 

[stickty111]

Timmins and Rifai throw down.
Winner to face Liljegren.

Unless Liljegren is banned from hockey all together. In fact I expect an annoucement soon from the NHL saying "the NHL has determined that Timothy Liljegren will no longer be allowed to play in the NHL, which will include all levels of hockey including community rinks across the world as a result of his incompetent play. He is shaming the sport and hope to never associate his name with hockey again".

The NHL will further comment when Marshall Rifai and Connor Timmins are given Co norris trophies on Wednesday October 9th before puck drop.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

He does need to make the jump this season. The 3m is basically the no excuses contract. They invested heavily developing him and he needs to do something special.

The tools are there. Its his head that isnt. Sort of like Alex Nylander. Not talking about smarts here. Drive determination confidence in making a decision that is good without second guessing.

I will submit just a bit and agree that Timothy Liljegren is indeed a human being.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

The fear of a player succeeding elsewhere cannot be the driving force in making roster decisions, because you must build your roster with an idea in mind, not out of a fear drive.

MLSE employees take the easy route.

During that time he played really well and the PP ran like a well oiled machine. As soon as Reilly comes back from my memory he no longer even got 2nd PP duties and his game went to shit (as did the PP).

Reilly is definitely a PP2 player.

Leafs aren’t going to deal one of their few righties to play another left-handed guy at right defence, full stop.

Absolutely

 

[Ciao]

It would be nice if that was the way it worked.

Too bad the NHL doesn't permit performance based compensation.

Goals * y$
Assists * x$
Save Percentage * w$

et cetera.

Union Step approach + performance money ...

We won't get into tax ratio.

Hard to promote teamwork like that.

 

[Its not your fault]

Unless Liljegren is banned from hockey all together. In fact I expect an annoucement soon from the NHL saying "the NHL has determined that Timothy Liljegren will no longer be allowed to play in the NHL, which will include all levels of hockey including community rinks across the world as a result of his incompetent play. He is shaming the sport and hope to never associate his name with hockey again".

The NHL will further comment when Marshall Rifai and Connor Timmins are given Co norris trophies on Wednesday October 9th before puck drop.

Finally it goes to the best defensive defenseman.

 

[Stephen]

If you saw Rifai and Liligren play (and don’t know who was who), were not told what round they were drafted in or how old they are, most people would say Rifai is better. But people can’t get over Liligren being a former 1st rd pick, he’s just not good.

I think people would clue in that it’s a trick question!

Liljegren is smooth at what he does and shows flashes of higher end ability but he lacks the competitiveness and bite we’ve seen out of Rifai. If he has that personality and pace he’d be a much more impactful player and could carve out a Rasmus Andersson type career. Haven’t watched Rifai too much to know what his big limitations are.

 

[Stephen]

Best way to increase lillygrins trade value is by signing him to a cheaper contract

Maybe letting him walk easy peasy was the best way to handle that. Keep all the cap space and start fresh with something else.

 

[TopCheeseShotta]

Thread should've always been Lilly vs Myers, rather than Rifai I guess? Hahaaaaa.

Nooobody had Myers on their bingo card of hopefuls going into camp, and this guy just played solid enough and stayed mistake free - and straight stole a job. Good for him!!

 

[Ianturnedbull]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843313952979382425

 

[Ianturnedbull]

"Liljegren continues to hold the door open for other players to takes spots"

-Justin Bourne Sportsnet Elite Hockey Analyst Special

 

[francis246]

Thread should've always been Lilly vs Myers, rather than Rifai I guess? Hahaaaaa.

Nooobody had Myers on their bingo card of hopefuls going into camp, and this guy just played solid enough and stayed mistake free - and straight stole a job. Good for him!!

I did. Always felt him or Mattinen would make the team and Liljegren would be out. Got killed for saying it before pre season started

 

[tmlfan98]

Thread should've always been Lilly vs Myers, rather than Rifai I guess? Hahaaaaa.

Nooobody had Myers on their bingo card of hopefuls going into camp, and this guy just played solid enough and stayed mistake free - and straight stole a job. Good for him!!

Actually I did, as far back as July 3rd.

Confirmed with Link: - Leafs sign 3 depth players - D Dakota Mermis, D Philippe Myers and F Cédric Paré (1 year, $775k each)

Marlies vet D LD Mermis Rifai RD Myers Mattinen Prospects LD Webber Kokkonen RD Niemela Villeneuve Sharpe (AHL deal) Lots of call up options. Another bunch of older college types on AHL contracts Pretty deep. Marlies gonna be competitive. Edit: congrats to Pare on his first NHL deal. Big kid...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Roo]

It was always Liljegren vs Timmins. These are two guys that have top 4 potential but haven't showed any consistency, and are questionable on our 3rd pair today. But they both have upside. Myers is what he is. He can fill in and be serviceable on our 3rd pair, but won't be anything more than that. Same with Rifai. Same with Mattinen. That said, Timmins and Liljegren are nearing the end of their rope here. This is probably their last season to prove they can be more.

 

[conFABulator]

This Liljegren thing is interesting to me. Two things I was watching for this year were (1) the impact Berube would have and (2) if Liljegren could step up to be a top four dman, I had him paired with OEL on a pairing that would get similar ice time to Benoit/McCabe.

NOTE. I was also looking at Nylander to C this year but that is not relevant to this discussion.

It's possible that my point (1) trumped my point (2). Is Liljegren the first Berube casualty? Is this a good thing? Is he asking for a heaviness and intensity from the D (all players?) that Lilly just doesn't bring?

He has always had the tools and was given some latitude while developing, but is that over now for him? For the team? Chief said he wants us to be harder to play against and maybe that objective doesn't reconcile with Liljegren in the lineup over Hakanpaa, Myers, Rifai and even Timmins? It's not like Lilly gives us so much more of something else that we can overlook that he might be a bit soft. It might be interesting for others to see this and know things are different in town now.

This or course extends to the F unit as well. We already see them not rushing Jarnkrok back and who knows where Kampf fits when Dewar is healthy? A bottom line made up of Dewar, Lorentz, McMann, and Reaves has more nails, even Holmberg over Jarnkrok is a step in that right direction. Don't sleep on Minten here either.

With the cap gymnastics we pulled off yesterday we have another few weeks to see how this all plays out in real games.

 

[Da Mash]

Well Timmins has only played 50 games with the leafs the past two yrs and has 24 pts and a plus 10

Maybe we shouldn’t write him off so quick as a suitable 5th/6th D

Lilly has been given more opportunities here. Even tho he filled in nicely when Rielly was hurt he just hasn’t taken the next step.