Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly may have a new home next season.
Despite having a no-movement clause, this may be the last year we see the 31-year-old defenseman dawn the blue and white. Drafted No. 5 overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Rielly is the longest tenured Maple Leaf and has gone through all of the ups and downs that this organization has seen in the past 15 years.
The Athletic's James Mirtle recent podcast indicates that Rielly's time may be over with Toronto as quoted below:
"We do see players around the league that have no movement clauses, that they just say...you're done here, where do you want to go...unless he turns it around this year, it kind of feels like that's where it's going with Rielly in the offseason."
Rielly's entire career in Toronto has been interesting. As a young defenseman, his skating was elite which gave us plenty of optimism that he would be Toronto's version of Kris Letang. Although Letang won mutliple Stanley Cup's as Pittsburgh's top defenseman, he was never one of the top 10 best defenseman in the NHL or anything. Instead, he was just a good player on a good team who could provide some solid offense from the blue-line and that's kind of what we all wanted Rielly to be.
Morgan Rielly needs to waive his no-movement clause
Unfortunately Rielly never quite reached Letang's peak, as he's only scored double-digit goals twice in 13 years, which isn't good enough to be paid $7.5M AAV until 2030. He's shown glimmers, highlighted by his 68 point 2021-22 season and 2024-25 playoffs, but overall, Rielly has been a liability on defense and someone who people think is a lot better than he actually is.
Speaking of being a liability on defense, he made a terrible play on the Matthew Schaefer game-winning goal on Saturday night that solidifed why he needs to leave Toronto, as the Leafs "best defenseman" cannot be making that type of play to lose the game.
When you break down the history of Leafs defenseman, you can make a case that Rielly is a top-10 defenseman in team history, but GM Brad Treliving needs to look past that when he's evaluating this hockey team. If Treliving is able to convince Rielly to waive his no-movement clause that could end up being one of the biggest wins of his career thus far, as he clearly needs a change of scenery.
Rielly can shine on a Stanley Cup contending team's second-pairing if he's alongside a stay-at-home defenseman, but unfortunately the Leafs roster isn't broken down like that right now, so let's hope the Leafs can package him in the offseason to clear some cap-space and improve thier overall roster.