Toronto Maple Leafs Add Elite Player to Roster Post-Trade Deadline

The Toronto Maple Leafs did not make any major additions at the NHL’s trade deadline.

That said, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be adding an elite superstar player when Morgan Rielly returns to the lineup tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Rielly broke his foot January 12th in an 8-4 loss to the Florida Panthers.

His injury was catastrophic to the Leafs, who were absolutely rolling at the time of the injury.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Morgan Rielly

Morgan Rielly is the Leafs best defenseman by a country mile.  He’s one of the best in the NHL.

The 26 year old Rielly really broke out in the 2017-18 season when he went from 27 to 52 points.  That year he was one of only three players (along with Doughty and Hedman) to post positive differentials against top competition and score 50 points.

The following season (last year) Rielly rode a high-shooting percentage to a 20 goal, 72 point season, the first defenseman in years to score 20 goals and 70 points.

Rielly also led the NHL in 5v5 points by a defenseman, and had solid differentials across the board.  The most impressive thing was accomplishing what he did while dragging the bloated carcass of Ron Hainsey around the ice.

With Hainsey, Rielly was a paltry 49% player, and without him, a 55% player.  (All stats naturalstattrick.com).

He was robbed of the Norris Trophy. 

This year, Rielly continued his great play, though without the benefit of a shooting-percentage binge to pad his stats.  Unfortunately, despite getting away from Hainsey, Rielly was saddled with Cody Ceci as his most common partner.

Rielly and Ceci combine for a 49% expected goals rating, while Rielly and Barrie combine for a 54% rating.  The latter pairing was also good for nearly 60% of all goals scored while on the ice.

In fact, despite the misplaced trepidation some traditionalists have about pairing the two offensive players together, their numbers were elite prior to Rielly’s injury.

Though Rielly and Ceci were paired at practice yesterday, here’s hoping the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has the good sense to put Rielly back with Barrie.

Either way, the Toronto Maple Leafs are desperate and Rielly’s return couldn’t come at a better time.  Some people will knock him for his lack of defensive acumen, but Rielly keeps the ice tilted in his team’s favor and is one of the three to ten best defenseman in the NHL, based on his last three seasons.

The Leafs record with Keefe coaching and a healthy Rielly in the lineup is 15-5-2 for an incredible 73% points-percentage.  That’s a quarter-season record that, extrapolated over the course of a full season, would make the Leafs the NHL’s best team.

Without Rielly, the Leafs went 11-10-3, which is just over 50% points-percentage, and instead of top-of-the-league, it’s a record good for a lottery pick.

Now, nine of those games also featured an injury to Jake Muzzin, but nevertheless, it is still an indication of how important Morgan Rielly is to this team.

When he’s on the ice, it tilts in the Leafs favor, but he also makes Marner, Matthews, Tavares and Nylander far more dangerous due to his ability to move the puck up the ice and control the pace of the game.