When will it be time for Morgan Rielly and the Toronto Maple Leafs to go in another direction?
Sportsnet 590 THE FAN: James Mirtle on the JD Bunkis Podcast on the Toronto Maple Leafs and a move for defenseman Morgan Rielly.
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Bunkis: “Part of the reason why Rielly disappointed me, it’s not just the game. It was the fact that going into the offseason, he obviously intended to change the DNA. That the front office came out here with all this error, Yes, we need to change the DNA. We need to change the DNA.”
And your point about losing Marner or not replacing him, that was part of the failure of the program. Morgan Rielly’s contract has four seasons after this, 2030. He will be 35 years old, James, at the time of this contract, is actually 36 years old in the last year of his contract here.
Like, can you imagine what this will look like a few years from now? This is someone who really relies on athleticism. The idea is that the Leafs took their time with this player, and that they didn’t want to try to pressure him by moving away from him a year ago.
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Where a team might look at it like, you know, Kipper used an analogy yesterday, I looked at him, maybe a team looks at Morgan Rielly the way teams look at Seth Jones. Because there was a time when people looked at that Seth Jones contract and said, man, you can’t move that guy. That’s a lot of money. And yes, Chicago was in worse shape than Toronto, so that gave him more grace.
But at this point, as people, you’re talking about, hey, this offseason now, maybe Morgan Riley is moving. Why? Who, taking Morgan Riley through his age 36 season at seven and a half million dollars a year, unless he takes another horrible contract?
Myrtle: “I mean, I think you’re hoping it’s going to be a complete waste of wages, and that you can do something with the money. And I wonder…”
Bunkis: “What material do you attach to that?
Myrtle: “Yeah, yeah, I don’t know. I mean, that’s what I said. I think the best hope is to just make a clean trade. I mean, there’s going to be a ton of teams that have money, with the way the cap goes up. So, and there’s nothing available in free agency in terms of defense.
I suspect the leaves are not looking. They were trying to add another puck mover in the offseason, and they couldn’t do it. I suspect they looked at it and said, we don’t have enough guys in D. We are having trouble adding such depth to your help.
You know, they got lucky with Troy Stecher coming in on waivers. I think they just felt like, they couldn’t just take Morgan Rielly out and not do anything else.
But again, it’s like a safe way. And the Leafs go safe again and again and again, and burn them, because everything gets to you. And it was caught in them by Morgan Rielly.
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And, you know, it was kind of an exclamation point when he was there in his season, watching Matthew Schaefer, 18 years old, swing around him the way he did. You know, it used to be said that Morgan Rielly was a strong player.
I mean, he’s never been a great defensive player, but he used to be able to knock you out of his seat with the way he walked on the ice, and he just, he looked old. He’s talking about 35 or 36, he looks like one of the oldest defensemen in the league. And it robbed him of his great strength, his ability to skate.”
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