The future of Morgan Rielly with the Toronto Maple Leafs could be coming to an end very soon and that means he's potentially doing something for the very last time.
On Monday night, as the Maple Leafs host the Dallas Stars, it is the final game of their regular season at Scotiabank Arena. Toronto will be closing out what has been a miserable and terrible and brutal 2025-26 campaign on the road in Ottawa, playing what should also be a miserable game against the Senators.
That of course means that Rielly could be on the ice in Toronto for the very last time as a member of the Maple Leafs.
Morgan Rielly could be playing final game for Maple Leafs in Toronto
Rielly has been with the Leafs organization since he was drafted fifth overall in the 2012 NHL Draft and made his debut shortly after. He's lasted several different front office and coaching changes and it has all come to a car crash of an end.
Morgan Rielly has been with the Maple Leafs since 2013 and will play his 950th game tonight.
— Nick Barden (@nickbarden) April 13, 2026
But has he thought this could be his last game in the organization?
"It's crossed my mind before. All athletes, at some point, they think about that. Tonight's no different than that."
Rielly's name has been in trade rumours all season long. The elephant in the room is that he still has a full no-move clause for the remaining four years on his contract that carries a $7.5-million AAV. And considering that he is not showing anywhere close to the player he once was, as he has currently scored just 11 goals and 36 points in 76 games and is not a positive defensive presence at all on the blue line, it might be a deal that is tough to move.
To trade Rielly to another team it is going to take a very long conversation between the Leafs and the defenseman, and then some sort of sweetener with the other team to get it done. Whether it is taking back a similar contract for a change of scenery, retaining some of Rielly's salary, or adding a draft pick to make it happen; something will happen to make this move possible.
And it is obviously crossing Rielly's mind that he could be playing in front of Leafs fans for the very last time as a member of this team. Something that he might have never thought possible, but he's also a big reminder of what has gone wrong for this team for the last 15 years (and forever).
It will be a hard move to pull off for whoever the general manager is this summer, but it will be a necessary band-aid to rip off to move this team into the new chapter.