"This will massively backfire": NHL fans react to Timothy Liljegren's trade out of Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs made a trade on Wednesday, sending young defenseman Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for veteran blueliner Matt Benning and two draft picks.

This move immediately drew strong reactions from Maple Leafs fans on social media, with many believing trading the 25-year-old Liljegren could come back to haunt the team.

One fan tweeted,

"NO!!! This will massively backfire! Timothy will do so well. This will come back to haunt us." one fan wrote on Twitter.

Another fan wrote,

"Terrible trade. I know Liljegren isn't the greatest Dman around, but we traded a decent 25yo NHLer for essentially a 30yo fringe NHLer and 2 draft picks who may never see NHL ice, and even if they do, it'll be 5 years or more from now. I don't like this trade one bit."

A couple of fans wished Liljegren well after the move.

"Good for both sides. Leafs needed the cap space and lily deserves to play more somewhere" one fan wrote on X.

"best of luck to liljegren, hope he has lots of success. welcome to Matt Benning as a leaf.... a few more people need to be moved....imo.. kampf,yarnkrok... robertson? another fan wrote.

Meanwhile, a couple of other fans lamented the Leafs' recent struggles in developing defensemen.

"Looking back, I feel like both Liljegren and Sandin were seen as the future of the Leafs blue line, and now they're both gone." a user commented.

"so that’s liljegren, sandin, and dermott all gone. do we just not know how to develop defensemen or??? dunno if you want to include holl rosen or borgman too but that’s uhhhh not great!." another user wrote.

Liljegren was Toronto's first-round pick in 2017. Despite playing one game this year, Liljegren showed solid performance last season, where he tallied 23 points in 55 games.

Timothy Liljegren couldn’t make Maple Leafs lineup this season

The Leafs opted to go with a top-six defensive group of Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Chris Tanev, Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins coming out of training camp. That left Timothy Liljegren as the odd man out under new head coach Craig Berube.

Liljegren is in the first year of a two-year, $3 million per season contract extension he signed last summer.

"I tried my best, but it didn’t go my way," Timothy Liljegren said about failing to earn a regular role, per SportsNet. "I’ve just been trying to come in and work hard."

In six seasons with Toronto, Timothy Liljegren played 197 games and recorded 14 goals and 65 points.