Toronto Maple Leafs: Morgan Rielly Off to Better than Great Start
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a team off to an incredible start.
They are 5-1 and fast making believers out of anyone who tried to say they weren’t yet contenders. One of the reasons for that is the play of Morgan Rielly. The Toronto Maple Leafs weakness is thought to be their blue-line, specifically the lack of a supposedly true #1 defenseman. While I think Jake Gardiner qualifies, Morgan Rielly is looking to make that a moot point with his torrid start to the season.
So far, Morgan Rielly has played six games this season and has five points, all assists. Only one of those assists is at 5v5 where he has been unlucky: PDO of just under 90, 7% on-ice shooting percentage. As good as he’s played, he should actually have more points than he does. Currently he’s been on the ice (5v5) for three more goals than the Leafs have scored, but Leafs goalies have stopped only 83% of the shots they’ve face while Rielly has been on the ice, so there is a high chance his excellent play is going unnoticed.
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Rielly also has a 57.5% possession rating, controlling nearly 60% of the play when he’s on the ice. In the times when Rielly has played at even-strength without Hainsey, both of their ratings drop, suggesting that they are a complementary pair and that I was wrong when I said Hainsey would drag Rielly down. It, however, has only been six games and so the sample size is incredibly tiny. Still, off to a good start. Interestingly, when they’ve been broken up, Hainsey has struggled more than Rielly, suggesting that Rielly is now at the point where he is improving the play of others. If this holds true, it’s an excellent sign for his development.
The Six-Game Norris Goes To……
So far, Morgan Rielly leads the Toronto Maple Leafs in possession, and is tied with Zaitsev for the lead in points by a defenseman with five. Individually, he has taken 20 shots, which is more than Zaitsev and Gardiner combined. The Leafs have so far equally distributed tough minutes and d-zone faceoffs between Rielly and Gardiner’s respective lines.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have controlled 63.83% of the scoring chances with Rielly on the ice. This leads the team. This also leads the NHL (if you ignore the Dallas Stars defenseman who gets much, much easier minutes than Rielly).
Next: Babcock Letting Defense Run Wild
Morgan Rielly is off to the best start to a season of his career. He has been the Toronto Maple Leafs best defenseman this year, and has been – arguably – the best defenseman in the NHL this year so far. Where he not being sand-bagged by the unlucky fact that the goalies behind him have stopped only 83% of the shots they’ve faced, then this would probably be THE story in Leafs Nation right now. Yeah, it’s only six games, but it’s a good start.
Stats from Naturalstattrick.com