TORONTO, ON- SEPTEMBER 10 - Timothy Liljegren skates as the the Toronto Maple Leafs Rookie team plays the Ottawa Senators Rookies in the 2017 Rookie Tournament at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. September 10, 2017. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Toronto Maple Leafs: Can Any Rookies Crack the Lineup? by James Tanner

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a lot of talent on their 23 man roster alone.

Quickly forget about the backlog of prospects that the Toronto Maple Leafs have in development, this team is still stacked.

Speaking of the Leafs backlog, one of the players in their development system is Timothy Liljegren who made his North American debut in a Leafs uniform last Friday.

Yes, he was on for four goals against.

No, I don’t care because patience is the name of the game.

He’s an 18-year-old kid playing in a different country after a rough year in regards to health, give it a little while.

Around the time I finished my round of golf yesterday (yes, that’s three rounds in three days – I have a problem), a friend of mine texted me.

He’s one of the pro scouts for the LA Kings who’s responsible for scouting the Leafs (ironically) and he was headed to their final tournament game.

It was mutually agreed that Liljegren is a good skater with natural offensive instincts who can be sloppy and make mistakes with the puck but is only 18 years of age.

Somewhat of a defensive liability, but he emphasized the age thing again.

Let’s explore that.

Timothy Liljegren

Over the last few days, I’ve read numerous comments on Twitter, Facebook, articles and the like regarding Liljegren’s shaky debut.

Patience is a virtue, my friends.

Liljegren demonstrated his strength in the tournament, the ability to create scoring chances.

Here’s an example.

Moore scores off a great play from Liljegren. 3-0 #leafs pic.twitter.com/DoTpmZ8AdN — Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) September 10, 2017

He’s skating in, head up, knows the route from his stick to the net isn’t great, so he fakes the shot and makes a good play resulting in a Leafs goal.

That’s his strength right now and what separated him from a lot of other defenders in the draft.

Liljegren’s weakness is his ability to defend and that’s exactly what can be improved through careful guidance from stellar coaching and a great work ethic.

Players don’t play a perfect game, they take time to develop and for 99% of us, we’ve only paid attention to Liljegren for about four months, so what do we know?

The Leafs will take this kid and mold him into the player they want to utilize, just remember that he’s not going to be an Erik Karlsson, he’s going to be a Timothy Liljegren.

Things will take time, but I expect his defensive play to improve.