Toronto Maple Leafs: Big Season Coming for Rielly

If you remember only one thing the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2016-17 season, it’s the offense.

The Toronto Maple Leafs made a huge jump last year in the standings. Besides making the playoffs, they had six players who put up over 50 points. The year before, the highest point total on the team was just 45.

Last year, Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kadri, van Riemsdyk, and Bozak all passed the 50 point mark. That’s a huge jump for just one year.

Kadri and Rielly

Kadri had a rocky path to the NHL. Despite being taken seventh overall in 2009, he didn’t find a stable NHL job until 2013. Up until then, he was constantly bouncing between the AHL and the NHL, and when he was up in the bigs, he constantly found himself in Ron Wilson’s doghouse.

After Wilson left and the Leafs hired Randy Carlyle as their head coach, things didn’t get much better. The Leafs simply couldn’t find a coach who would sit down and help him focus on his defensive game rather than just demote him or keep him on the bench. He did have a great 2013 season, putting up 44 points in 48 games, but his woes would continue until Babcock was brought in as head coach.

The reason I keep using Kadri’s name in this discussion is because he was in a similar situation as defenseman Morgan Rielly.

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Rielly was drafted as an offensive defenseman and he’s constantly had that tag to his name. He’s a great skater and he’s creative with the puck, but like many other defensemen at his age, he struggles defensively.

Rielly Last Season

You’ll notice that last season, Rielly suffered a setback point-wise. He dropped from 36 to a measly 27, but there’s a reason to this.

Reilly was taken off the power-play and instead of the two minutes of PP TOI he had in his first three years, he had less than a minute per game last year. He also only had 4 secondary assists and was played in a more defensive role.

The Leafs didn’t need to rely on Rielly as heavily for offense, so Babcock had him playing on the penalty kill instead, where he noticeably got better as the season went on. He was often on the top pairing alongside either Zaitsev or Matt Hunwick.

If we go back to the Kadri topic, he used 2015-16 almost entirely to work on his defensive game. And when 2016-17 rolled around, he exploded offensively. He scored 32 goals and put up 61 points for his career-best full season since entering the league. He looked like the player the Leafs’ thought they were getting in 2009 when they drafted him.

Conclusion

While Rielly and Kadri play different positions, I predict a much better season offensively for Rielly this season. I think he’ll be given more powerplay time and there is a good chance he won’t be used to face the other teams’ top competition, or that at least, Babcock will balance out the usage a little more.

Next: How to Put Rielly In a Position to Succeed

As my colleague Andrew Boehmer stated, it won’t be out of the question to see Rielly pass the 40 point mark. He’s been using this training camp to work on his offensive game and change up the way he plays in the opponent’s zone, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does this season.

All statistics and information obtained from hockeydb.com

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