Morgan Rielly has been in large part one of the cornerstones of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise during the past decade. Rielly had given the Leafs their best offensive potential from the back end since the days of Tomas Kaberle in helping Toronto to nine consecutive Stanley Cup Playoff appearances.
However, his recent decline in play has led to many overreactions, including speculations that he should be traded. Nevertheless, the star defenseman still has the vote of confidence from Leafs coach Craig Berube, believing that he can get his game back on track. So then should the Maple Leafs really consider trading Rielly right now? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons in moving on from their franchise defenseman.
The pros and cons for the Maple Leafs in trading Morgan Rielly
One thing is for sure, moving a key core player in the middle of the season would send shockwaves through the Leafs lineup, indicating that no one on the roster is safe. In doing so, it could light a fire under the Maple Leafs players to get them performing at their very best going forward to ensure job security with the organization.
Secondly, trading Rielly will open up substantial amounts of cap space for the Leafs to make further moves to revamp their roster. With an annual cap hit of $7.5 million AAV, Toronto could potentially use that money to address multiple needs to get the team back into contention if not this season but for next season.
In addition, by removing Rielly and his disappointing play from the current lineup, the Leafs play in the defensive zone could see some improvement as the likes of strong defenders Troy Stecher, Jake McCabe, Philippe Myers and Simon Benoit would likely receive more minutes going forward. With more reliable play in their own end, Toronto would no longer need to win 5-4 or 6-5 every night.
But by moving Rielly, there won’t be a clear-cut No. 1 option remaining to man the Leafs blueline going forward. For one, the Maple Leafs won’t be getting a top defenseman in a trade return for Rielly, as the prospective team would just keep theirs if so. As for internal options, Leafs top defenseman prospects Noah Chadwick and Ben Danford won’t be arriving any time soon with years of growth and development awaiting them, whereas William Villeneuve will likely top out as a bottom-pairing defenseman at the NHL level. As a result, it will force Toronto to turn to external options to re-acquire a top-pairing defenseman either by trade or free agency, which will require them to give up a lot of resources as a result.
In addition, as much as his offensive numbers has slowly decreased in recent years, Rielly has still been leading the Maple Leafs defenseman in scoring each year. Taking that offense away would leave just Oliver Ekman-Larsson as the sole threat from the back end, making it easy for opposing teams to counter the Leafs offense as a result. So unless Toronto is ready to tank their season and take away any chances to make the playoffs, losing Rielly at this moment may not be the best solution for the franchise.
Most importantly, Rielly has a full no-movement clause in his current contract, meaning that he has full control of where and when he wants to be moved in any trade. So the Leafs would need to do a lot of work to convince the veteran defenseman to waive his clause to get anything done. The last thing that they would need is to have a trade vetoed by Rielly while having the disgruntled defenseman staying knowing that he was not wanted by the organization.
As a result, as of this moment, trading Rielly might not be the best idea, especially with Toronto’s aspirations to still make the playoffs. But come the offseason when Leafs management can sit down and analyze the future direction of the franchise, that is when they can decide if a Rielly move is necessary for future success going forward.