I get that signing, trading for, or drafting a legit D partner for Rielly can be tough.
But enough with the excuses. Rielly has played with crap D partners for 7 years. Hunwick, Marincin, Ceci, Hainsey, Robidas, Franson, etc.
The very best of that group was Hainsey, who came here at age 36 and was realistically a #4-5 guy at that point.
Look at who Keith, Doughty, Pietrangelo, Carlson, etc got to play with when those teams won their Stanley Cups.
Every year defence is a problem, and every year we listen to how hard it is to add defencemen. Boo hoo, figure it out.