The Maple Leafs have reached a point with Morgan Rielly that nobody in Toronto probably expected this early. His play has dipped enough, and for long enough, that the question is no longer whether there’s a problem. It’s what the team does about it.
Toronto’s blue line as a whole has been uneven, to put it kindly. Troy Stecher and Jake McCabe have been the most reliable pieces so far, while Darren Raddysh has flashed at times.
Beyond that, it’s been a rocky group. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has no points through eight games and doesn’t look like his usual self.
Nick Blankenburg has only just worked his way into the lineup. Chris Tanev had been steady, but the possibility of a long-term absence leaves that situation in flux.
Still, Rielly stands out for all the wrong reasons. Jim Hiller had to pair him with Stecher, and while Stecher brings plenty of tenacity and grit, there’s only so much he can cover up when Rielly is struggling beside him.
Rielly has four assists, but the rest of the picture is ugly. He is already minus-5, the Leafs have allowed more goals than they’ve scored with him on the ice, 12 to 8, and his combined 0.3 point score doesn’t help his case.
The numbers are bad enough. The tape has been worse.
He hasn’t been driving offense, and he hasn’t been cleaning up defensively either. Instead, he’s been a source of repeated breakdowns in Toronto’s own end, giving opponents chances they should not be getting. The clips tell the story plainly: he’s getting beaten with ease, he can’t recover, and too often he looks like he simply stops once the play has gone past him.
The moment against Buffalo summed up the concern. With Owen Power carrying a wide open lane and less than two minutes left in overtime, Rielly was two feet away from getting in the way of the shot.
Instead of throwing himself down to block it, he stayed in a crouch. At that stage of the game, the expectation is simple: give yourself up for the team.
That’s why this feels bigger than one bad stretch. Rielly was never being asked to be a shutdown defender, but Toronto needs more than this. If the same issues keep popping up, the Leafs are going to have to seriously weigh whether keeping him is worth the cost.
And if the organization wants to push that conversation forward, the answer may be to shrink his role. Less ice time.
Third-pairing minutes. No power-play duty.
Make him earn his way back.
For now, Toronto has a real decision on its hands. If Rielly’s performances stay on this track, the question won’t be whether the Leafs trade him someday. It’ll be when.
In Other News...
Oilers Linked To A Top-Six Target They May Struggle To Land
Kirill Marchenko gave the Maple Leafs one of their brightest individual nights in recent memory, scoring his first hat trick with the club and capping it with a between-the-legs goal that had the building buzzing. Even with that kind of production, Toronto still watched the game slip away in overtime after squandering a lead, a reminder that one explosive performance can still end up feeling hollow when the result goes the wrong way.
The loss also came with a more worrying subplot for Toronto, as John Tavares left in the third period after an awkward collision with Josh Norris. Jim Hiller had no update afterward, leaving the Leafs to wait on the status of one of their most important veterans while the rest of the league keeps churning through its own trade and roster chatter. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Forward Depth Suddenly Has A New Jason Dickinson Problem
Chris Tanevs absence has already put a small dent in the Maple Leafs blue line, and the timing is hardly ideal. The veteran defender was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 10 after leaving the win over Colorado with an upper-body injury from a collision with Artturi Lehkonen, a reminder that Torontos early-season depth is being tested before the schedule even settles in.
John Tavares has only added to the uncertainty up front. He is being treated as day-to-day after heading down the tunnel following an awkward collision, and the coach had no firm update on his status. For a Leafs team trying to build rhythm, the concern is less about any one missed game than the way a few nagging injury questions can start to stack up all at once. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Blue Line Suddenly Has A Problem That May Force Action
Chris Tanevs absence has put the Maple Leafs in a familiar midseason bind, and it comes at a moment when their blue line could use some stability more than another round of shuffling. Toronto is now weighing whether to bring in another defenseman, a process that makes sense given the uncertainty around the back end and the way injuries can quickly change the shape of a roster.
The discussion is still in the early stages, with the club expected to wait until after this week before taking a harder look at its options. If Toronto does decide to act, the names already floating around around the league give a sense of the market the Leafs are likely to be exploring, but for now the bigger issue is simply how long they can ride this out without making a move. [Read more 🡒]