Would the Toronto Maple Leafs Ever Consider Trading Morgan Rielly?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of possible trade chips to make their team better including some defensemen, but would the Maple Leafs ever consider trading Morgan Rielly?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have multiple trade chips on their team that they can possibly trade away and make their team better for the time being or even the future.

The team has some cap issues right now, and they also have to address their blue line on the right side.

The question is would the Toronto Maple Leafs ever consider trading away Morgan Rielly for a nice return and keep their younger blue liners like Sandin, Liljegren, and Dermott?

Toronto Maple Leafs and Morgan Rielly

Morgan Rielly wasn’t having an ideal 2019-20 season especially when he went out with a fractured foot which sidelined him for two months.

After coming off an exceptional 2018-19 season having 72 points in 82 games some people were searching for the offensive powered Morgan Rielly this past season.

Yes 27 points in 47 games is still good for a defensemen he wasn’t on that pace he was last year, and he was on pace to finish the season with 47 points in 82 games.

2019-20 stats – 47 GP – 3 G – 24 A – 27 PTS – 24:12 TOI 

Career stats – 517 GP – 54 G – 216 A – 270 PTS – 21:40 TOI 

(Stats from Hockey-Reference.com)

Morgan Rielly is probably one of the most important players the Toronto Maple Leafs currently have on their team.

His importance on the backend is tremendous even though he isn’t the greatest defensively, he drives play and makes the Leafs play less overall defense when he is on the ice.

We’ve also seen how the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle without him in the lineup.

Rielly was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2012 and has been on the team since the dark days (2012/13-2015/16).

Rielly also just turned 26 years old and is still under contract for another two seasons which he will more than likely get paid big bucks for his next contract because he is currently getting paid $5M AAV. (Stats from CapFriendly.com).

Would They Actually Consider Trading Rielly?

I really don’t think Kyle Dubas and would trade Morgan Rielly when he is the team’s best defenseman and has one of the best contracts in the NHL.

Whatever you would get back for Rielly, even if it was a strong return, it would be hardpressed to match the value of having a top 15 defenseman in the league on a half-priced contract.

Some people were saying during the season that Morgan Rielly should be traded due to his poor 2019-20 season and to be honest that is nonsense just to think about. Yes he wasn’t on the same pace as his amazing season prior but he was defiantly battling an injury throughout the year as it was clearly visible seeing he wasn’t the same Morgan Rielly we all saw the year before.

Another reason why I don’t think they should trade Rielly is because he is realistically part of their future still.

Being 26 years old is a perfect age in my opinion to be a part of a young talented team with players like Matthews, Marner, Nylander etc.

Other than Muzzin, the Leafs defense is very young, and Rielly is one of the team’s main leaders.  If the team needs to make moves because of the salary cap, they should do so with other players.

The Toronto Maple Leafs definitely need to keep Morgan Rielly in the fold.