Since trading away both Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson, the San Jose Sharks have needed a solid upgrade on the right side of the team’s blueline. The Sharks had hoped to get it in 2024, when it added Jack Thompson, a right-shot defenseman who couldn’t seem to break through in Tampa Bay. But Thompson didn’t give the team the offensive thrust it was looking for, so, on Oct. 30, 2024, the Sharks added another right-shot defenseman looking for more of an opportunity, trading Matt Benning and a couple of picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Timothy Liljegren.
Liljegren’s 2024-25 production
When Liljegren arrived in San Jose, he appeared to be a young defenseman who was also a victim of a team that was simply too deep on the blueline. Toronto had only played him in one game that season, and it was clear that in a different situation, he could develop more.
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Shooting % | TOI/Game |
| 68 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -25 | 5.9% | 19:16 |
After arriving in San Jose, Liljegren became a regular in the Sharks’ lineup. He suited up for Team Teal in 68 games and finished the season with 17 points. He played more than 19 minutes per game. While none of these were personal bests, the 19:16 per game was close to the 19:40 he averaged per game in his best season in Toronto, 2023-24.
Liljegren is mid
At this point, Liljegren is 26. He has played 264 career NHL games, and we seem to have a pretty good idea of what he is. He’s mid. That’s not meant to be disparaging, but rather realistic about what the Sharks have in Liljegren. He’s a mid-level defenseman who can play on a second power play unit on a good/great team, but can’t be the play driver.
Take, for instance, what he did with the Toronto Maple Leafs on the power play last season compared to what he did with the Sharks this season.
Liljegren was not explosive while playing on the power play (mostly in the second unit) with the Maple Leafs, but he did okay and the team created chances. However, this season, when placed in a similar role with the Sharks, it was a much different story. The second unit, where Liljegren often played, did not generate many goals. What’s more, the possession numbers weren’t great.
In this sense, Liljegren’s supporting cast helped indicate his ability to perform on the power play. The Sharks had second-unit stalwarts like Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin. They weren’t exactly offensive powerhouses. While players like Toronto’s Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi and Calle Jarnkrok aren’t immensely better, they are a step up, which might indicate why Liljegren performed better on Toronto’s power play.
Pairings mattered at even-strength, too
The same could be said at even-strength, where Liljegren’s partner went, the young defenseman followed. Looking at Evolving-Hockey’s regularized-adjusted plus-minus (RAPM) chart for the defenseman last season with the Sharks and his three previous seasons with the Maple Leafs, it looks like Liljegren was only as good as his defensive partner.
That is not a bad thing, but it can give you a better idea of what to expect from the 26-year-old moving forward.
Last season, Liljegren spent the most time playing alongside Mario Ferraro, not exactly a player known for generating a ton of offense (though Ferraro did better last season than in seasons past). Liljegren also spent time at even strength paired with Henry Thrun, Lucas Carlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. While they are all okay defensemen, they don’t compare to the defensemen that Liljegren played alongside in his three previous seasons with Toronto.
In 2023-24, Liljegren spent most of his time playing alongside either Mark Giordano, Jake McCabe or TJ Brodie. In 2021-23, he was mainly playing with Rasmus Sandin, Giordano or Morgan Rielly. That’s a huge difference in pairing.
It tells you that Liljegren can be a solid supporting defenseman, but he will not carry a pairing, so don’t rely on him to do so.
Liljegren’s pairing for next season
That doesn’t mean that Liljegren is a lost cause. In fact, when used properly, he can be a good defenseman for the Sharks who won’t cost a ton of money.
As we talked about previously, Liljegren spent most of his season playing alongside Ferraro. It would be easy to put those two players together again this next season and call that the top pairing, but there is another option.
| Pairing | TOI | GF/60 | GA/60 | Differential | xGF/60 | xGA/60 | Differential |
| Ferraro – Liljegren | 587 | 2.56 | 3.17 | -0.61 | 2.69 | 2.84 | -0.15 |
| Thrun – Liljegren | 117.5 | 1.02 | 3.57 | -2.55 | 1.82 | 2.19 | -0.37 |
| Carlsson – Liljegren | 96.5 | 2.49 | 3.11 | -0.62 | 2.61 | 2.8 | -0.19 |
| Vlasic – Liljegren | 83.9 | 0 | 3.58 | -3.58 | 2.17 | 2.32 | -0.15 |
| Walman – Liljegren | 67 | 4.48 | 3.58 | 0.9 | 3.27 | 3.04 | 0.23 |
| Mukhamadullin – Liljegren | 57.5 | 0 | 1.04 | -1.04 | 2.22 | 2.06 | 0.16 |
| Ceci – Liljegren | 30.8 | 1.95 | 3.9 | -1.95 | 0.94 | 3.56 | -2.62 |
Looking at last season’s pairings, you can see that Ferraro and Liljegren weren’t too bad in goal differential or expected goal differential at even strength. They could eat up minutes as the team’s top pairing next season and do well.
That said, another option might be better, especially if the Sharks want to try a player like Sam Dickinson alongside Ferraro and have Ferraro play on his offside, something that the team could consider given the lack of right-shot defensemen currently in the fold.
If that’s the case, a pairing of Liljegren and Shakir Mukhamadullin might be something the team should explore further. Even though the goal differential for the pair was a negative-1.04 through 57-plus minutes, the expected goals for was net positive. They were generating chances at even strength, even if the team as a whole was not converting on those chances. As Mukhamadullin becomes more and more comfortable in the league, this could be a solid second pairing for the Sharks next season that would spread out the team’s defensive skill a bit better.
Liljegren’s future with the Sharks
Liljegren is in the second year of a contract that pays him $3 million per season. He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2026 season.
There feels like there’s a bit more to Liljegren’s game than what we saw this past season, and he could reach 30-40 points per season at his peak. It will be interesting to see if that happens next season.
Whether he does so or not, Liljegren is pretty much locked into a top-four spot. It’s hard to say if he’ll be with the team past this season or even the trade deadline. General Manager Mike Grier will likely have to evaluate where some of our prospects are as we near the trade deadline. Players like Eric Pohlkamp might be ready to make the jump to professional hockey. Or there is always an opportunity for a trade. That’s not to mention the prospects joining the Barracuda this next season, including Leo Sahlin Wallenius and Mattias Havelid. Dickinson might jump to the NHL. There are some young options that could force Liljegren out.
Until we see how the others develop, however, the Sharks could do a lot worse than Liljegren on defense.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players who are 1) still with the Sharks even if they are not under contract at the moment and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.
