With Berube and Treliving safe, Maple Leafs should approach Morgan Rielly about a trade

The Maple Leafs are struggling and firing assistant coach Marc Savard is a somewhat random place to start, but this team surely isn’t finished adjusting on the fly. This is a hockey team in desperate need of significant change, and it starts by approaching veteran defenceman Morgan Rielly about the next chapter of his career.

Rielly, 31, is the longest-tenured Maple Leaf and he’s under contract through the 2029-30 season at $7.5 million AAV. Rielly owns a full no-movement clause, and from all accounts during his exit interview after last season, told Treliving he’d like to remain with the team. Treliving reportedly made his messaging very clear to Rielly that he needed to be better, and while there’s been some flashes of brilliance this season, for the most part, Rielly’s been extremely inconsistent with his production, and it’s time to move on.

Matthew Knies, William Nylander, Auston Matthews, and John Tavares with his new affordable contract aren’t going anywhere. Berube and Nylander bump heads sometimes but it’s not to the point where the team is going to turn their back on the player who consistently shows up in big playoff games. Knies is struggling of late, but at 23 years old, he’s a core piece moving forward. And, while there’s a lot of uncertainty around what’s bothering Matthews behind the scenes, no chance the Leafs move on from their captain. Rielly is the one core piece who needs to be dealt, and getting him on board could be the hardest part.

So far this season, Rielly’s posted 24 points in 34 games, so this isn’t a case of a team trying to move someone who has absolutely no trade value. There’s several teams who could use what Rielly offers in his tool box, it’s just come to a point in Toronto that its run stale. There’s good, sure, but there’s also bad, and very ugly this year, and on a nightly basis Rielly’s doing things on the ice that leave you scratching your head.

Rielly can still skate, despite the fact he’s getting beat more and more in defensive-zone coverage. Lately, Connor McDavid and Luke Evangelista made him look silly, but if you look at his skating speed, his max speed is actually higher this season than it’s been over the course of the last three years. The speed is still there, it’s the decision making that’s deteriorated, and his ability to make a first pass. Two things that stand out on a nightly basis, and Treliving should realize it’s time for an uncomfortable conversation with the longest serving Maple Leaf.

The Maple Leafs have consistently played Rielly above where he should be slotted on a contending team’s depth chart. He’s not a top-pair defenseman, he doesn’t make that kind of impact in a game, and he doesn’t have the booming shot, or play-making abilities to be quarterbacking a power play. While Savard took the fall for the Leafs dismal power play, the main reason it struggles is because they don’t have a quarterback.

The million-dollar question becomes where exactly Rielly would be open to playing the next chapter of his career. With the Quinn Hughes saga, it seemed like there was an outside shot the Leafs would be involved as a third-team and perhaps Rielly would wind up in Vancouver, but as we now know, that wasn’t the case.

If we stay out west, could the Seattle Kraken have some interest? They have eight draft picks in the first two rounds of the next two NHL Drafts, so they certainly have some draft capital to move. Is Ryker Evans someone the Leafs would have interest in? Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton don’t seem to be logical trade partners for a variety of reasons, but, there’s also the Calgary Flames. Could Rielly be involved in the pre-deadline deal to bring Rasmus Andersson to Toronto? Would Rielly approve the move? Certainly an intriguing option and something to keep an eye on.

One wild-card team would be the Anaheim Ducks. With over $20 million in cap space, and a roster that’s overachieving this season, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek hasn’t been shy to make bold trades. They have just two defencemen under contract for next season and need some long-term security on their back end. Southern California is a great place to play hockey and raise a young family, so perhaps this is a destination Rielly can get on board with. He slides in nicely as the second-pair LD behind Jackson LaCombe, and gives the Ducks another veteran presence for a relatively young core.

We could go over potential trade targets until we’re blue in the face, the only things that matters here are if Treliving is open to approaching Rielly about a list, and if once that conversation takes place, if Rielly is open to his next chapter outside of Toronto.

If this organization wants to make a significant change, it starts with ending the Rielly era. Plain, and not so simple.

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