Morgan Rielly had been the main backbone of the Toronto Maple Leafs defense for more than the past decade. Rielly went through the pain in the early rebuilding years with the Maple Leafs before rising to stardom as Toronto ascended back into contender status. In doing so, he had been the main offensive force for the Leafs from the back end, up until probably now.
Rielly had unfortunately seen his play start to regress a little just the previous season, and that decline unfortunately has carried over into his past year with the Leafs. As a result, it has become a bit murky on whether he still has a future left in Toronto with big changes to be made this offseason.
Morgan Rielly’s stats
Rielly saw Brandon Carlo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as his most frequent defensive partner during the 2025-26 season. With the breadth of steady experience from Carlo or Ekman-Larsson, one would have expected Rielly to be able to run more freely on the offense while his partner could take care of the more defensive duties. But that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Last season, Rielly managed to record 11 goals, which was actually his second-highest goal output of his NHL career. However, with just 36 total points produced over 78 games played with the Leafs, it marked the second straight year where his totals have declined from the previous season. A more worrisome statistic though was his -18, which was his worst mark since 2016-17 when he registered a -20 for his plus/minus. Due to his struggles, Rielly also averaged just a little over 21 minutes of ice time per night, which was his lowest since his sophomore year back in 2014-15.
Did Rielly live up to expectations?
From an offensive standpoint, at least Rielly still produced at a typical NHL defenseman pace. However, as the Maple Leafs’ main quarterback on the power play, his six points all season with the man advantage represented his second worst mark of his career, leaving a lot to be desired.
But from a defensive standpoint, it had been more of a disappointment for the veteran defenseman. Rielly has been a lot less physically for much of the past two seasons, recording just 21 hits in 2024-25 and 35 last season. In addition, he has recorded high totals in giveaways for the past two years as well, with 99 in 2024-25 and 87 in 2025-26. With also his CF%, expected goals rate and scoring chances rate falling below 50% for two consecutive seasons, Rielly isn’t driving play whenever he has taken the ice in 5-on-5 situations. Let’s just say, he will need to be a lot better as a top-pairing defenseman on the Leafs team.
What do we expect from Rielly next season?
Based on the trend we have seen in recent years, Rielly could continue to regress in the coming season, which would be disastrous for Toronto who are trying to get themselves back into contention for 2026-27. Either that or the Maple Leafs better hope that he can pull off something similar to the renaissance season that Ekman-Larsson had put together for Toronto this past season.
However, with new Maple Leafs management looking to make drastic changes this offseason, many are speculating that Rielly’s time with Toronto could soon be done. That is because trade rumors surrounding the Leafs defenseman had been swirling towards the end of the 2025-26 season, as well as currently this offseason. He still has a no-trade clause in effect. But if Leafs management don’t really see a future with the veteran defenseman, Rielly could essentially waive the clause to allow both parties to move on and make way for the best of their futures.
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