Fans wanted to tank the year for Timothy Liljegren. He was the superstar right-handed defenceman the Leafs needed, after all. The Leafs rookies didn’t listen and made the playoffs. Liljegren didn’t listen and suffered mononucleosis, and ended up having a decent but not good enough to get excited year. 

But common sense says ignore the illness and let him reach his potential. We hand him ranked 6th overall in our Nation Network total rankings. The Leafs had him up there too. Maybe there’s a big four after all.

We’ll follow up with deeper dives as the weekend progresses.