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Toronto Maple Leafs Should Sign Morgan Rielly Now

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - MARCH 27: Morgan Rielly #44 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on March 27, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Oilers 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - MARCH 27: Morgan Rielly #44 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on March 27, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Oilers 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs should put a bow on the offseason by signing one of their most important players to a contract extension.

Arguably, the Toronto Maple Leafs missed their window to do this at a reasonable price, but it could still be possible that Morgan Rielly would take less than his market value to stay with the team.

Earlier in the summer, the Leafs had an opportunity to use the pandemic and the flat cap to maybe squeeze some term and a cheaper deal for Morgan Rielly, but that passed when the league’s other 30 GMs went full Al Pacino in Dick Tracy.

If you don’t get the reference to a 30 year old classic (one of the best movies of the 90s, or any other decade) then you’ve got some homework to do, but basically Al Pacino is so so over the top in this movie that he is the best metaphor for what NHL GMs did this summer, which was go absolutely crazy handing out dumb contracts to overrated players. (Seth Jones, Darnell Nurse, almost everyone on  the Islanders, Rasmus Ristolainen, etc.).

Toronto Maple Leafs and Morgan Rielly

Had the Leafs acted prior to worse players than Rielly getting paid double what they are worth, things might have turned out better. Now they are 100% reliant on Rielly taking a team friendly deal.

I would hate to see the Leafs trade Rielly, as he is my son’s favorite player, and so by default, also mine.  If there is one player I’d love to see spend his entire career in the blue and white, it’s Rielly.

His current contract is a bargain at $5 million, but how do they give him a reasonable raise without blowing up the team? It’s a question for better minds than mine.

What I don’t want to see is the Leafs let him walk.  This is usually a pretty sound strategy, because you just recoup the cap space and move on (and additionally, you get a very cheap rental).

It’s a reasonable move, but the perception of it is lousy and given how many times it’s happened, it might be a disaster if it were to happen with fan-favorite Rielly after another disappointing playoffs.

The perception of losing yet another star player for nothing is something the Leafs won’t be able to overcome unless they win a Stanley Cup.  They can’t trade a star player on one of the league’s best contracts heading into a season where they are a top Cup Contender.

And they can’t give him Seth Jones money, even if he’s twice the player.  It is your classic rock vs hard place situation.

Next. How Important Is Depth?. dark

It says here the Toronto Maple Leafs best of several bad options is to just bite the bullet, and sign the team’s franchise defenseman to a contract they probably won’t love.  No other choice really, and it will put a nice bow on the off season.

The time to sign Rielly is now.

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