Why hasn’t Morgan Rielly been traded yet?
In the offseason news that has yet to happen, defenseman Morgan Rielly is still a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After the Leafs missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in a decade, reports arose that Rielly and the team were looking at the possibility of trading the veteran away from the only team he’s ever known. The conversation about Rielly’s future with the club has been rather taboo around the team, but it picked up steam after the franchise entered a phase of transition, as the new regime looks to put the Maple Leafs back on track.
On this week’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss why a deal to move Rielly out of The Six hasn’t happened yet.
Tyler Yaremchuk: John Chayka was very busy this offseason … The Morgan Rielly thing…like everyone was so open and public about it. Like Reilly had basically come out. I mean, like, ‘Yeah, I know my time here is coming to an end.’ The other part, and this ties [to a YouTube comment], ‘I wish San Jose had traded for Rielly rather than [Darnell] Nurse.’ Celebrini has a good relationship with Morgan. He’s got a bit more offensive upside. The fact that we’ve seen other expensive defensemen get traded this summer, like Darnell Nurse, and the fact that both the Leafs and Rielly were seemingly so vocal about both sides wanting a fresh start. That one’s more surprising for me…can Morgan Rielly have an ‘A’ on his sweater and walk back into that Original Six locker room next season and be like, ‘Hey, I know I said I want to leave, and I know the team said they wanted to punt me, but here I am.’?
Carter Hutton: I think it’s tricky, too. You just think about the protection he has, and obviously there’s been a lot of smoke around Morgan Reilly and everything that’s gone into it. I just think the fact that he is such a key piece of this Toronto locker room that, if the return isn’t there, maybe that’s why it’s taken a bit longer to try to get that done. For Morgan Rielly’s sake, I think a change of scenery would benefit both sides at this point…it’s just a matter of how much value does he have with his contract and what he has left at $7.5 million for another four years, and he’s 32 years old. So, then teams start to kick that down the line to see where he’s at. If you could swallow that money, I think a team could take that on. For Morgan Rielly, I think he can still be valuable. I just think he was always in this position where he had to be that one-two guy, and it just never really fit him. If he can go in and maybe play in a little bit more of a minimal role, he could still be an impactful player in the NHL.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
