The chatter surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs this season has involved trading longtime defenseman Morgan Rielly. Rielly, the Leafs' longest-tenured player, has drawn trade calls due to his apparent lack of production.
That’s justified. Rielly is supposed to be the Maple Leafs’ top offensive blueliner. While he’s certainly leading Toronto defensemen in scoring this season, his comparative numbers aren’t quite what Leafs Nation would hope for.
In 41 games this season, Rielly has five goals and 21 assists for 26 points. That’s good for 22nd in the league among defensemen. That’s not bad, but not exactly amazing. For comparison’s sake, other veteran blueliners like John Carlson and Shayne Gostisbehere are well above Rielly in scoring.
So, trading Rielly makes sense to a certain extent. The Maple Leafs need a blueliner who can contribute more offensively while taking on top minutes. While finding such a defenseman is not easy, there’s more to trading Rielly than just the evident, practical implications.
Trading the longest-tenure Maple Leafs player would be a watershed moment for the club. It would be an admission that this core is finally done with. In a sense, it would signal the beginning of a new rebuild.
Since being drafted fifth-overall in 2012, Rielly has been as steady as they come for the Maple Leafs. He dealt with the lows of those awful teams of the 2010s, including the awful Shanaplan tank of 2016. He’s handled the disappointments of all of those playoff exits.
Unless the Maple Leafs landed a whopping haul for Rielly, which likely won’t happen, moving him would be a psychological line in the sand. It would mark the end of the line for this iteration of the Maple Leafs core.
After Rielly, it would be feasible to assume Auston Matthews would be next on the block. After Matthews, William Nylander would likely be the last of the core to get shipped out. Only John Tavares would most seemingly go down with the ship.
Trading Morgan Rielly makes sense only if the Maple Leafs are truly sunk. That would mean hitting rock this year and potentially sinking for good next season. At that point, Matthews would be nearing free agency, making talk of a rebuild sensible.
As long as the Maple Leafs have a shot at the playoffs, moving Rielly would be more counterproductive than effective. If anything, Rielly deserves a shot to play 1,000 games in a Maple Leafs uniform.
Wouldn’t that be something truly special to see?