Please for the love of god make the fantasies of getting a 2nd round for Liljegren stop. Especially to a team that has lots of young developing defensemen.

Notice how it's always the best of their three?

And a top 40, too.

A team with 0 signed dmen for next season, 3 RFA's and a bunch of empty roster spots.

Liljegren has been putting up great numbers for years and is 25. He has his warts but he's great at getting out of his zone and driving the puck in the right direction. He looked great when given the opportunity on PP 1 last year before Rielly came back.

The odds of a #40 pick being a good RHD who is a valuable option on the PP is pretty low. They have a 40%~ chance of even making the NHL.

They have more young defensemen then just the guys on their current roster like Simashev, Lamoureux, Söderström, and Duda.

They also could, as you have for you leafs, sign a player to fill the gaps. Rebuilding teams don't usually give up high draft picks unless it's for an impact player which Liljegren isn't.

Not sure I would say #40 is a high pick, I think you may want to re-evaluate what LIljegren is and what opportunity he has been given with the Leafs.

I assume Utah would rather be competitive sooner rather than later and Liljegren>the vast majority of options with 0 GP in the NHL. You are talking about getting players from the Q and jumping straight into reliable options in the NHL as dmen at 20 years old.

Go through drafts that are maturing around 2018-2020 and look at outcomes for players from pick 40-60. Some gems but the majority of the time these players turn into nothing. Liljegren never got trust from Keefe even after being great on the PP and is probably sick of being railroaded to play fridges over him.

Liljegren is a solid 3RHD option with powerplay upside, Utah may be interested in getting more certain pieces on their team that aren't closing in on 30 like most options in UFA. Keller is 25 and is in his prime, this should be when this core of the team is starting to put it together.

I'd rather keep Liljegren on the 3rd pairing but Benoit and McCabe already have another year and Treliving seems infatuated with both of them. I'd rather play Liljegren over Benoit but I don't think it'll happen. This deal makes more sense than you are willing to admit and you are valuing second round draft picks too high and a 25 year old 3rd pairing RHD too little.

This deal also has very little to do with the majority of this roster anyway, I left cap space to re-sign him instead and never used the 2nd rounder and then they could send Timmins down who is fully buryable and may get claimed on waviers anyway.