Morgan Rielly's Time With the Leafs Potentially Coming to an End After 12 Seasons, per NHL Analysts
Morgan Rielly is Toronto's longest-tenured player, but given his lack of production in recent years, some analysts think this might be the end of the line.
Having gone through some of the Maple Leafs' highest and lowest points, Morgan Rielly has been a consistent force for the team for the last decade plus. He's been the leader of the blueline pretty much since he was drafted, and has emerged as the backbone of the team.
However a bit of a deeper dive into Rielly's numbers show that he's perhaps not the elite defenseman that Toronto needs him to be.
Amidst a lack of production offensively, he still has several defensive lapses that are unbecoming of a top defenseman, and with how big his contract is, there's not many excuses.
Others have noticed to, and now two prominent NHL analysts have decided that Rielly's time with Toronto could be coming to a very near end.
Nick Kypreos Predicts Morgan Rielly's Future
Speaking on their show 'The Real Kyper and Bourne' podcast, Kypreos and co-host Justin Bourne broke down how they thought the future of Morgan Rielly was going to be in the coming months:
Bourne responded as fellow host Sam McKee mentioned Morgan Rielly getting some undue criticism:
Amongst all the debating about what's changed, Kypreos boldly laid it out for everyone:
It's a bad omen when Rielly goes from unheralded hero to pariah in the span of a few seasons but he really has no one to blame but himself.
He's incredibly streaky and often finds trouble being consistent for long periods of time.
Case in point his best season where he scored 20 goals and added a blistering 52 assists and looked like he was one of the league's elite offensive blueliners.
Two seasons later he had a combined eight goals and 54 assists and often found himself making some defensive mistakes.
Rielly hasn't scored in double digits since 2021-22, and giving some of the worst hitting stats in his career.
Also at the lowest defensive zone faceoff percentage of his 12-year NHL journey, being under 40% means Craig Berube would much rather rely on Chris Tanev or Jake McCabe instead.
Rielly is also making $7.5M and his output does not justify the amount owed to him.
Toronto might be able to add some serious financial flexibility or find the elite pivot they covet and use Rielly as bait.
It's an unfortunate downfall for the Maple Leafs former 5th overall pick. While Rielly hasn't been bad; far from it. He's just been unable to show up when Toronto needs it most, and that's a price they can't afford to keep paying.
