Toronto Maple Leafs: Morgan Rielly’s Career Bounce Back Year
The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted a star defenseman in Morgan Rielly.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Rielly 5th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, they drafted an elite defender.
Disagree?
That’s totally fine, my word is never the authority on anything, it’s just my opinion.
We’re all allowed to share our opinions and my view is that differentiating opinions can be good for conversation.
Nonetheless, I firmly believe that Rilley is an elite defenseman.
Our very own Ryan Ferguson agrees with me and you can read about his opinions here.
I’m 100% aware of the ups and downs he’s had throughout his NHL career, but who cares?
The guys that come into the NHL at such a young age and flourish right away are on a completely different level than most others.
I’m talking about players like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews.
However, Rielly’s still played a solid defensive game throughout his career and has also been able to show positive offensive instincts in some instances.
Let’s take a little look at his point production history.
Career Statistics
Rielly’s been playing for the Leafs since the 2013-14 season, consistently over 73 games each year.
We’ll break his statistics down to games played, goals, assists, and points.
2013-14: 73-2-25-27
2014-15: 81-8-21-29
2015-16: 82-9-27-36
2016-17: 76-6-21-27
Despite what some people may think, those numbers are alright seeing as though Rielly plays against top line – top, line (Indian Jones reference) – competition every game.
And yes, that’s a monumental factor in all of this.
Bounce Back Year
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I have no doubt in my mind the Rielly will have a bounce back year this upcoming season and I’ll even go as far as saying he’ll have a career year for himself.
I think that he’ll smash through the 10 goals threshold that’s shadowed him and amass over 45 points in total by season end.
When you add in the players that the Leafs did to the team, forward and defense, you improve the overall quality of the team.
At least that’s the goal.
Even when guys get resigned, there’s a different atmosphere filled with excitement.
This team should be coming into the season with the mentality that they can and they will succeed with what they have because they’re more than capable of doing so.
Why do I think so?
If you watched just 10 of their games last season, then you know the answer to that question.
Breakdown
To make things a little easier, we’ll take a look at just the back end and see what improvements have been made so far this offseason.
Rielly – Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner – Connor Carrick
Calle Rosén/Andreas Borgman/Travis Dermott – Ron Hainsey
I’m not saying that those will be the pairings because as you can probably see, I have no idea who will actually be on that bottom pairing left-hand side.
I also don’t even know how Mike Babcock will arrange the right side, even the top two on the left side.
Who knows, Rielly or Gardiner could be on the top pairing, we’ve seen this defense corps being juggled before.
But with one look at the names on that list, it’s obvious that it’s an improvement over last year.
Now, my prediction on Rielly having a career year may just be a prediction in the end backed up by little to nothing, but I have a feeling.
Mark it down, Rielly will have a career year for himself in the 2017-18 season.