The Toronto Maple Leafs have dealt defenceman Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks for defenceman Matt Benning, a third-round draft pick in 2025 and a sixth-round pick in 2026.
San Jose owns third-round selections previously held by Edmonton and Colorado. Toronto gets the earlier selection as part of the trade.
The 30-year-old Benning from Edmonton has appeared in seven games so far this season for the Sharks.
He’s recorded 17 goals and 85 assists in 464 career NHL regular-season games with San Jose, Nashville and Edmonton, along with five assists in 24 playoff games.
Liljegren was a first-round draft pick of Toronto in 2017. He’s played one game for the Maple Leafs this season.
The Swedish defenceman has 14 goals and 51 assists in 197 career NHL games and all with Toronto.
The visiting Seattle Kraken and the Maple Leafs have already been tricking and treating this week before their game on Thursday night.
Both teams have treated their fans to high-scoring victories sparked by hat tricks.
Centre John Tavares scored three goals – his 12th career regular-season hat trick – in Toronto’s 6-4 road victory over previously undefeated Winnipeg on Monday.
Defenceman Brandon Montour had his first career hat trick and added an assist in Seattle’s 8-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday in the opener of a five-game road trip.
The Kraken had a 4-0 lead by 10:33 of the first period.
“I think at times this year, we’ve been too much on the perimeter and we’ve been too much not a shooter’s mentality,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “There’s no secret about really scoring goals in this league, it’s you’ve got to have shot volume, you’ve got to have guys at the net, you’ve got to have people in around the net. ... [Tuesday], in the first in particular, we were very good at that.”
Chandler Stephenson added four assists.
Toronto also opened a 4-0 lead at Winnipeg after scoring twice in the first 3:25 of the second period. They withstood Winnipeg’s rally and Tavares clinched the result with his fifth goal of the season into an empty net.
Toronto coach Craig Berube reunited Tavares and William Nylander (one goal, two assists) and added Max Pacioretty (three assists to match a career best) to form a line that responded with nine combined points on Monday.
Berube noted that Nylander and Tavares have played well together in the past.
“[Pacioretty] did an amazing job working really hard, winning pucks back and making some really nice plays,” Nylander said. “We just meshed together off the hop, so it was nice.”
Tavares is on a five-game point streak (three goals, four assists).
Toronto is 5-1-0 against Seattle all-time.