The Toronto Maple Leafs is a weird market plain and simple. It is a place where we revere our forwards and snub out our defenseman. Great players have come and gone more recently, Jake Gardiner and Dion Phaneuf. Now I won’t sit here and say that Gardiner and Phaneuf were perfect players, but they were definitely not as bad as the fans and media made them out to be. We put those guys on blast to the point where you couldn’t turn your tv on TSN without some type of polarizing story. It seems as though the negative often over shadows the positives of our defense the past few years and I honestly don’t know why, especially when we have a guy like Morgan Rielly on our backend.
Morgan Rielly honestly might be the most underrated defenseman in the league, and that says something considering the market he plays for. Time and time again he is overlooked; he wasn't even in the top 4 in Norris trophy voting last season. In the 2018-19 season Rielly posted all new career highs in goals, assists and points which is leaps and bounds from his previous season of 52 points.
Offensively we know he can produce so how is he defensively? According to hockey-reference.com he also put up career high in Corsi% posting a 54.8% which was 2.9% better than Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman. Its also pretty clear Mike Babcock has liked what he’s seen considering Rielly’s bump of 256 minutes from 2017-18 to 2018-19, he is being used in more critical situations, he can play anywhere you put him, and he is a vocal leader on and off the ice for the rest of the team ,the case for captaincy was certainly there and I don’t think many people would have been upset if he had won it. With the 2019-20 season finally underway and with the Maple Leafs complete makeover on the backend, could this finally be the season that Morgan breaks through the league and forces people to pay attention? Well he is certainly off to a great start putting up an impressive 4 assists against Ottawa and Columbus, not to mention his 66.1% corsi average. With Tyson Barrie taking a bit more attention from Rielly I could easily see him putting up career numbers and taking home NHL hardware.
Offensively we know he can produce so how is he defensively? According to hockey-reference.com he also put up career high in Corsi% posting a 54.8% which was 2.9% better than Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman. Its also pretty clear Mike Babcock has liked what he’s seen considering Rielly’s bump of 256 minutes from 2017-18 to 2018-19, he is being used in more critical situations, he can play anywhere you put him, and he is a vocal leader on and off the ice for the rest of the team ,the case for captaincy was certainly there and I don’t think many people would have been upset if he had won it. With the 2019-20 season finally underway and with the Maple Leafs complete makeover on the backend, could this finally be the season that Morgan breaks through the league and forces people to pay attention? Well he is certainly off to a great start putting up an impressive 4 assists against Ottawa and Columbus, not to mention his 66.1% corsi average. With Tyson Barrie taking a bit more attention from Rielly I could easily see him putting up career numbers and taking home NHL hardware.
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