Putting D+1 rookies, especially 18-year-old ones tends to be an extremely risky proposition. It looked to work for Ekblad, and Chychrun was fine this year, but the team was terrible, and the rest of the league would have sent him down. The jury is out on Hanifin. Even highly regarded ones went back to juniors/NCAA like Berrard, Redden, Jovanovski, and EJ. When I see the list of NHL defenders since 1990 who played in the league in their 18 year old season I see guys who mostly disappointed such as Trevordovsky, Bogosian, Aki Berg, Klesla, and Sbisa. Other guys who had good to decent careers but never lived up to their initial promise such as Hamrlik and Kyle McLaren (never developed an offensive game). Brent Burns is the notable exception, but pretty sure he was moved back and forth between forward and was also released to the WJC.
It has been better with 19 year olds in their D+1 for whatever reason with guys like Jones, Pronger, Fowler, Hedman, and Doughty. There are obviously still busts, but it doesn't seem as extreme.
It seems rushing teenage defenders the NHL tends to stifle their offensive game, as they really can't test what does and doesn't work at this level and instead focus on playing such a mistake free game (to varying degrees of success) that they never develop these skills later on. Liljegren should have to absolutely force his way onto this team by being good enough for a top 4 role. Otherwise it's to the AHL or SHL. Even if he is our 5th or 6th best defender, it is probably not in his and our long-term best interests to rush him. Send him down and develop. We want him to be the next OEL, and to do that even if he is ready now, probably requires extra patience.
