4. Morgan Rielly Extension
For the past few years, the salary cap has been the most talked topic in professional hockey, which is sad. You shouldn’t have to lose players who want to play for your organization for a few bucks, so it was interesting to see what would happen to Morgan Rielly.
As the longest tenured Maple Leaf, it wouldn’t have been shocking to see him go to Free Agency, because that’s something he’d never done before. Being the big-name free agent defenseman is very appealing to players, because it shows them their true worth on the open market and it’s obviously great for their bank account.
However, money isn’t always everything in those situations and Rielly decided that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and signed a big extension with the Leafs.
Although many fans wanted to see a change and see his cap-space get allotted to someone different, Toronto made the right decision to lock him up to that contract. Rielly has been an incredible player and great role model to the city for so many years and it only makes sense for him to be part of the future moving forward.