NHL Rumors: Canucks Interested in Maple Leafs Defenseman

After Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet sent Leafs Nation into a frenzy on Tuesday night with his latest report the Toronto Maple Leafs may have interest in Vancouver Canucks forward J.T Miller, turns out more information is surfacing from western Canada. According to Rick Dhaliwal, Vancouver has Timothy Liljegren circled as a player of interest.

Rick Dhaliwal on Donnie & Dhali: “Liljegren is a guy i heard last night that the Canucks would be interested in.”

He goes on to say the Canucks are JUST listening on every team & all their players.

He goes more in depth here about VAN/TOR: https://t.co/kEIdBMuuOf#LeafsForever

— Joseph Zita (@josephdzita) February 23, 2022

Sounds like some preliminary discussions could be taking place. Toronto may have some more trade flexibility as they approach the March 21 trade deadline because of an unfortunate injury to defenseman Jake Muzzin. He suffered a concussion and has been ruled out indefinitely at this point. Liljegren is a former first-round pick who has received a ton of playing time this season. So far in 34 games, the right-handed mobile defenseman has collected one goal and 10 points in 34 games. He's 22 years old and a pending restricted free agent coming off a season where he'll make $863,333. 

As for Miller, his name has been all over trade rumors since Jim Rutherford took over as president of hockey operations in Vancouver. While Rutherford has admitted the team isn't shopping Miller, he has mentioned management is trying to create more cap space moving forward into next season. So far this season, the 28-year-old has recorded 53 points in 50 games. 

The Leafs would love to get their hands on Miller to play on left wing on their second line with John Tavares and William Nylander. A potential deal between these two clubs could involve Liljegren, along with a combination of forwards Alexander Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev or prospect Nick Robertson.

Cont'd:

They have prospects that Vancouver would want, but Toronto's very protective of some of those prospects and have made it very clear they won't do them for rentals. Miller's not a rental but you're taking the same risk everyone else would, what's he going to do in a year?

— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) February 23, 2022

Keep an eye on Toronto and Vancouver as Rutherford and Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas have a history of huge trades and we could see another one coming in over the course of the next few weeks.

Photo credit:   Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports