Timothy Liljegren reveals his strategy in his first game against his former D partner

It came as a surprise to Leaf fans and the players when Kyle Dubas dealt Rasmus Sandin to Washington in exchange for Erik Gustafsson and a first round pick just prior to last year's trade deadline. The Leafs were on the ice practicing at the time and Sandin was pulled off the ice. He was then seen leaving the arena being walked out by his fellow Swedes and arm-in-arm with close friend William Nylander.

Tonight marks the first time Sandin will face his friends and former teammates as the Caps take on the Leafs in Washington. Ahead of the game, Timothy Liljegren, who developed alongside Sandin in Toronto, was asked about playing each other for the first time and if there would be any banter between the two of them.


Sandin's final season in Toronto didn't come without some public issues as he was an RFA without a contract. It wasn't primarily about the money at the time, but more about where Sandin saw himself fitting into the lineup as the left side of the Leafs' blueline had Morgan Rielly, a healthy Jake Muzzin at the time, and Mark Giordano all ahead of Sandin on the depth chart. He eventually signed the same, 2-year, $1.4M AAV deal that Liljegren signed earlier last summer, but it didn't get any easier for him with the Leafs acquiring left-handed Jake McCabe ahead of the deadline.


Liljegren faced some of the same hurdles on the right side, but opted to wait it out. When the Leafs lost Justin Holl and Luke Schenn in free agency, it opened up a door for Liljegren to step into a consistent role on that right side - a luxury that Sandin didn't really have during his time in Toronto, save for the Leafs using him as a stop-gap top-4 blueliner when injuries had ravaged the Leafs' D corps.