Let’s start with the big news from yesterday:
Everybody knew that something was coming in terms of clearing capspace for the Leafs. Everybody also knew that, considering he has been scratched for 9 of the team’s first 10 games, Timothy Liljegren was likely on his way out of Toronto. With that in mind I believe that a late 3rd, a 6th and a depth defender is a fine return for a player that is still young at 25 and has a morsel of potential left. Liljegren simply didn’t carve out a role on the team and I spoke about that before. His offensive game isn’t good enough to earn time on the powerplay, while his defense wasn’t good enough to make him a big contributor on the penalty kill. That’s not to say that he doesn’t have offensive and/or defensive ability, just that he’s been okay, but not great at both ends of the ice. I wish him the best in San Jose.
Matt Benning missed all but 14 games last season due to hip surgery, but returned to start this season, dressing in 7 of San Jose’s first 11 games. “Finally feel like myself again,” he said. “The depth of my squats is back. Strength might not necessarily be there, but I think it’s really close, and it’s just one of those things you got to work through, and it takes a little bit of time, but feels like I haven’t lost a step out there, lost anything.”
The question for most Leafs fans is what exactly are they getting in Benning and the answer is, simply, simplicity. If you look back to the 2022-23 season, his last full year, where he recorded 102 hits and 125 blocked shots in 77 games, while logging just under 20 minutes a night and 2:49 TOI/GP shorthanded, you get a snapshot of what to expect from the 30 year old veteran. He isn’t a shot blocking and/or hitting machine, but he isn’t afraid to sacrifice his body either. He’s largely used on the penalty kill, rather than the powerplay. The 20 minutes a night he recorded that season is the only real outlier. The expectation should be to see him log less minutes per game in a 3rd pair and/or depth role. He’s a steady, defensive veteran that will help their penalty kill and considering his injury history, as well as Hakanpaa’s knees, I guess the theory here is that if you have enough injured veterans you can fill the 3rd pair RD position by committee. Teams need depth and the Leafs secured that with this trade.
Recouping picks has been one thing that Brad Treliving has attempted to do lately. Gaining extra 3rd and 6th round selections is a solid bit of business that shouldn’t be overlooked as well. The Leafs hemorrhaged picks during the Dubas era and didn’t make a single deep playoff run. The picks he traded were generally spent on depth defenders such as Ilya Lyubushkin and Luke Schenn, or veteran leaders such as Nick Foligno. It’s those trades that have cost the Leafs in terms of not having an abundance of prospects coming up through the ranks. With deals like this, they shouldn’t have to look for those depth additions at the trade deadline. Likewise, with the additions of Chris Tanev and the strong play of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, it’s more than possible that they ignore the blueline at the trade deadline and seek centre depth instead.
Lastly, this deal gives the Leafs the ability to bring Jani Hakanpaa and Conor Dewar off of LTIR, but they still won’t have enough space to fit Calle Jarnkrok and his $2.1M caphit. In order to fit Jarnkrok onto the roster they’ll have to clear approximately $1.75M in additional capspace. Philippe Myers, who has played in just 1 of the Leafs’ games so far his season, appears to be an easy solution to clear $775K in space, but it would appear that there is more work to do in order to fit a fully healthy lineup under the cap ceiling.
I wouldn’t expect to see Benning dress for the Leafs tonight as they take on the Seattle Kraken, a team that boasts the exact same 5-4-1 record as Toronto so far this season. Lead by Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle and newly inked Brandon Montour, the Kraken have been keeping pace this season after missing the playoffs by 17pts last year. They’re coming off an 8-2 thumping of the Montreal Canadiens as well, so they’re full of confidence to start their 5 game road trip.
Toronto will have to tighten up defensively if they want to come away with 2pts from this one. After allowing just 13 goals over their first 6 games, they have managed to fall apart and give up 19 over their past 4 outings. Coming off a 6-4 win against the Winnipeg Jets, courtesy of a very strong start that faded as the game wore on, they’ll want to build on that momentum and get back to playing a conservative, transition game. It’s the core group of star players that seem to be having the hardest time adjusting to Craig Berube’s new systems. Hopefully that changes, starting tonight.
Enjoy the game. Go Leafs Go!!