Toronto Maple Leafs: Multiple 40 Point Defensemen

Morgan Rielly

Drafted fifth overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Morgan Rielly is one of the Leafs prized possessions.  Of all the defenseman the Leafs have, Morgan Rielly is probably the biggest wild card right now. Usually, after a defenseman plays four full seasons in the NHL, the community has a good idea about what that player’s ceiling is.

Usually. With Rielly, it’s hard to tell.  Will he ever be a 50 point superstar?  Or is his ceiling more of a well-rounded puck mover who plays tough minutes and puts up OK point totals?

After playing four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, veteran status on this team full of kids, Rielly will still only be 23 years old for most of the 2017-2018 season. He still hasn’t entered his his prime, or is just starting to.

In 312 games played, Rielly has scored 112 points, good for a 0.36 PPG average. That’s a pretty good number for a 23 year old NHL defenseman. There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding Morgan, he hasn’t put up the totals Leaf fans expected when he was drafted in 2012, but at the same time he’s so young that he still has room to develop.

If you look at last season, what is interesting is that he didn’t get very much power-play time.  Instead of the two + minutes he was previously getting, last year he got half that.  Nearly all of his scoring came 5v5, which suggests that if he got on the PP he’d have no problem approaching 40 points.  Also consider that he barely got any secondary assists, which is unusual for someone with his icetime.  That too should correct itself and lead to more points in the future.

When delving deeper into this subject, it’s a little less worrisome when you compare Morgan Rielly’s career thus far to some today’s elite defensemen. Here’s a small sample:

Kris Letang – After his first three full NHL season, Letang was only scoring at a 0.28 PPG pace and never came close to 40 points.

Brent Burns – In his first six NHL seasons, Burns only eclipsed 40 points once with his second best season being 27 points. (Although he may have reached 40 if he wasnt hurt for one or two of those seasons).

Victor Hedman – After his first four NHL stints, Hedman scored at an eerily similar pace as Rielly with a 0.35PPG pace.

There are obvious exceptions to this theory (Erik Karlsson), but defensemen who enter the NHL at a young age usually take 4-5 seasons to reach the upper echelon of the league.

Now this isn’t saying Morgan Rielly will be as good as the other defensemen mentioned above, but his progression to this stage of his career looks promising.

Last year his point totals took a massive hit, but coach Mike Babcock wanted Rielly to learn the defensive aspect of being an NHL defenseman. Rielly only logged 0:58 minutes of powerplay time last year, which was good for third on the Leafs blueline. Gardiner, 2:38 and Zaisev, 2:00 both had a lot more opportunities to pad their personal stats with the man advantage.

The playoffs was a completely different story. Rielly averaged well over two minutes per game on the man advantage and finished T-1 with Matthews for team lead in points. Give the kid some space on the ice and he will flourish.

If Babcock decides to give Morgan the powerplay time he deserves, Rielly will easily surpass 40 points this season. Maybe even reach 50.