Morgan Rielly looks set to be back with the Toronto Maple Leafs when the 2026-27 NHL regular season opens, and the path to that outcome may have had more to do with the Edmonton Oilers than the Leafs themselves.
There is still a small chance of a trade, but the current read is that both Rielly’s camp and Toronto are comfortable with him returning. Rielly himself put it plainly: “I just feel grateful to be a part of this organization and this team. I think there’s great things ahead, and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.”
The interesting question is why the move never materialized. Was Toronto the team that backed off? Or did another club step in and change the market before a deal could happen?
The most likely answer points to San Jose, and by extension Edmonton. Summer chatter had Rielly open to a trade if the Maple Leafs could work out a deal sending him to a Western Conference team. Anaheim and San Jose were the names most often tied to him, with the Sharks also believed to have interest.
San Jose made sense on paper. GM Mike Grier was trying to upgrade the blue line, brought in Jacob Trouba as a free agent, and had been talking with multiple teams about trades.
Darnell Nurse was on the Sharks’ radar, and Toronto’s goal was to move all of Rielly’s contract. The fit was there.
Then Nurse changed the picture.
As the Oilers and Nurse worked through his exit, GM Stan Bowman couldn’t line up a deal with one of the three teams Nurse had initially approved: the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, and Boston Bruins. It wasn’t until friends and family pushed Nurse toward San Jose - an up-and-coming team that needed exactly what he offered - that things shifted.
Nurse informed the Oilers that the Sharks were an acceptable destination, and the trade went through quickly. Zach Sharp and Shakir Mukhamadullin went back to Edmonton, and with that, the Rielly possibility collapsed.
Once San Jose was off the board, there wasn’t much left for Toronto to work with. Anaheim had lost the cap room needed to make a move after the Leo Carlsson offer sheet situation, and the Ducks also had to preserve space for Cutter Gauthier.
Meanwhile, the Sharks had already committed major money to Trouba and Nurse, with the pair combining for $17.5 million. Adding Rielly’s $7.5 million simply wasn’t realistic.
We may never know how far Toronto and San Jose actually got in discussions. What is clear is that once Nurse settled on the Sharks, the Rielly talks likely stopped just as fast.
For the Leafs, the result may not be the worst outcome. Rielly gives them some much-needed stability on a blue line with plenty of uncertainty.
Chris Tanev’s health, Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s consistency and Emil Andrae’s potential all come with question marks, while Jake McCabe stands as the lone steady presence. Keeping Rielly means Toronto still has a dependable top-four defenseman who can handle heavy minutes.
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