Morgan Rielly Appreciation Thread.

[diceman934]

But he's not, that's the problem. You can't call him a #1D when he doesn't do #1D things. A true #1D needs more ice-time than Rielly, is better on the PK, plays more time on the PK, and can reliably be matched against other team's star players.

Lol. He is a true number 1. Ask any coach in the NHL. He can not control the Ice time his coach gives him. Look at his partner tonight who was horrible. Haisney was the worse D man for the Leafs tonight.

He plays against all the other teams top players His qoc shows that. FYI he is tied for the Leagues lead in scoring.

 

[IPS]

Lol. He is a true number 1. Ask any coach in the NHL. He can not control the Ice time his coach gives him. Look at his partner tonight who was horrible. Haisney was the worse D man for the Leafs tonight.

He plays against all the other teams top players His qoc shows that. FYI he is tied for the Leagues lead in scoring.

He shouldn't need to "make "Babcock give him more ice-time. He should earn more ice-time via being better on the PK (which is his biggest weakness IMO). Rielly is a fantastic puck-moving offensive D-man but he doesn't provide the shutdown element that a true #1D has.

And yes, Hainsey was the worst D on the Leafs tonight.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

People claiming Rielly isn’t a #1D are ridiculous.

What more does he have to do? He’s carrying the corpse of Ron Hainsey with him

 

[93LEAFS]

He gets better every year it seems.

He actually had what looked to be a regression in 2016/17, which wasn't helped by an ankle sprain mid-year. He looks like he could enter very high-end territory this year. The PP is unreal, and there is no reason to move him off it with the damage they are doing.

 

[Fogelhund]

Rielly had tremendous growth to his defensive game last year, and he continues to grow as a player.... sure, he had a 50 pt season last year, and is tied for the lead league in points overall right now... but I see his greatest growth as a player as his defensive game. You put a Pesce, or a Manson... or even a (healthy!!?) Tanev beside him, and you've got a D putting up Elite stats both offensively and defensively in Rielly. That he's done so well, with boat anchors for partners, says a great deal.

 

[DoobieDubas]

NHL.com - Stats

Our boy is first in the league in points.

 

[7even]

Per Sportsnet, 10 points through 4 games is the best start by a defenseman in 30 years.

 

[Puckstuff]

Rielly has always had elite potential and he's shown it in flash's. He was really effective for team Canada.

Morgan's evolution and continued progression is the most important on the Maple Leafs.

Rielly being that elite #1 PP quarter back at the level of an OEL, Carlson or Pitreangelo is the difference between going out and having to get a top #1 OEL type AND a shutdown d-man, or just a shut down d-man.

I've said before, he may not evolve into Doughty, Hedman or prime Suter, Weber, Keith, Lidstrom, Pronger or Neidamayer; but how many of those are there?

If he can develop into that very high end #1 in the mold of OEL or Pitrengaelo a legit top 10-15 d-man; it makes everything so much easier.

I always thought we would need an OEL type #1; but it might be okay.

It basically means if Rielly as that legit # 1 guy we can move out Gardiner, promote Dermott to second pair and pay up for a Tanev, Manson, Pesce type.

If all we need is 1 shutdown d-man; it makes life easier.

(1)Rielly- (2)__________
(3) Dermott-(4)Zaitsev
(5) Liliegren-(6)Sandin

 

[Once]

Per Sportsnet, 10 points through 4 games is the best start by a defenseman in 30 years.

Hope this is a sign of an emerging big year for Rielly.

 

[WTFMAN99]

He's played with Zaitsev, Hunwick, Hainsey...way back when he played with Polak and Ranger.

Imagine if he ever got an actual top 4 defenseman as a partner?

 

[ICECOLDBEER]

Am I crazy to think he would play well with Gardiner? I know you want puck movers on each line but our M.O. is offence so lets load up. It would be like having 5 forwards on the ice in the offensive zone. Then we could move Dermott up with Zaitsev and Hainsey down with Igor. Pretty sure Morgan and Jake are good friends so I am sure they know each others short comings. They could cover for each other.

Or does it not work because players like to be on their preferred side?

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

Best part is Rielly is signed for 5 Mil for couple of more years muahahaha!!

 

[KyleSeaBass]

Best part is Rielly is signed for 5 Mil for couple of more years muahahaha!!

Kadri and Rielly are on two steals of a contract for 4 more years.

Hopefully the cap goes up by then so we can afford to resign them, or otherwise we might have to re-tool for a year or two.

Best case scenario is we win a cup by then so I won't have to care too much either way.

 

[diceman934]

He shouldn't need to "make "Babcock give him more ice-time. He should earn more ice-time via being better on the PK (which is his biggest weakness IMO). Rielly is a fantastic puck-moving offensive D-man but he doesn't provide the shutdown element that a true #1D has.

And yes, Hainsey was the worst D on the Leafs tonight.

Rielly was fantastic last night on shutting down the Stars his partner was not.
Babcock will not play him on the PK and PP so their is very little he can do about that. Our Pk pair are not very good and maybe in time he will make a switch,

Rielly on most other teams in the NHL would be played a lot more. I am happy with the way he plays in all areas of the game. He clearly is s number 1 D man and has been for a few years now. He faces the toughest competition,

 

[Kubus]

He isn't in my books - not yet. He has the potential to be, but I don't think he's there yet.
Most people who want to suggest that he is, seem to point exclusively at his points totals, ignoring his issues in his own end.
Until he tidies that up, he's not a #1 in my mind.

what book are you reading? Who in your book is a number 1 D, and how many are there? Is there at least 30, 25, or 20? If so name them all. Think about it really hard if you can name at least 20 D that are better than Rielly...doubt it.

 

[Trapper]

Lou locking this guy up was critical.
Same with Kadri.
You can't maintain a Cup team if you don't have the guys outperforming their sweet deals. You need guys who play well above the 5 mil and 6 mil salaries in the structure. This is equivalent to Chicago locking up Keith on the long term beat the cap deal.
But we are allocating too much money to forward and not enough to D.

 

[613Leafer]

It'd be interesting to see how a guy like Duncan Keith would have looked had he been paired with Hunwick, old-Hainsey, Zaitsev, Polak, Ranger, etc for his entire career.

You can't really ignore the facts that Rielly gets both among the very hardest minutes in the entire league, AND does it with very weak D partners. Give him Seabrook in his prime as a partner + slightly easier minutes, and Rielly would probably look like a very very well rounded defenceman (who also happened to be putting up 50+ points) - i.e. a legit #1 guy.

 

[Pi]

It'd be interesting to see how a guy like Duncan Keith would have looked had he been paired with Hunwick, old-Hainsey, Zaitsev, Polak, Ranger, etc for his entire career.

You can't really ignore the facts that Rielly gets both among the very hardest minutes in the entire league, AND does it with very weak D partners. Give him Seabrook in his prime as a partner + slightly easier minutes, and Rielly would probably look like a very very well rounded defenceman (who also happened to be putting up 50+ points) - i.e. a legit #1 guy.

Yeah, the Leafs need to stop signing these over the hill veterans and plugging them in with Rielly.

Trade for someone better and if not, just give him Gardiner or Dermott. Rielly can play on the right side.

A lot of our problems would be solved by a) getting a better partner for Rielly and b) giving him more ice time.

 

[Lansdown]

Blog post in the Star:
Morgan Rielly joining the conversation as an elite D-man

Morgan Rielly joining the conversation as an elite D-man | The Star

 

[A1LeafNation]

Brian Burke explains why he rated Morgan Rielly No. 1 in 2012 - Sportsnet.ca

 

[BAM]

Basically where i see him, at his best top 10-15. People forget just how good some of the D in this league are. Being a top 10-15 D in the league is not bad. It's elite.

He still has one of the worst shots, i just can't see him at the threat level of someone like Karlsson or Burns because of that. He's probably a better defender defensively than both, but he doesn't have that extra gear in awareness or game breaking with the puck

He's got 2 goals already, and the OT goal against the Hawks was all him but I do agree his shot could get stronger. One thing I've realized however is that he's very good at getting pucks through and getting rebounds, almost like how Franson could just flick it towards the net and create something when he played here. He'll rack up 60 assists this year playing on the pp and with that shot tho

 

[BAM]

He shouldn't need to "make "Babcock give him more ice-time. He should earn more ice-time via being better on the PK (which is his biggest weakness IMO). Rielly is a fantastic puck-moving offensive D-man but he doesn't provide the shutdown element that a true #1D has.

And yes, Hainsey was the worst D on the Leafs tonight.

Go watch OEL, Karlsson, Keith, Jones play, they don't have that shutdown element. They are great at shot suppression like Rielly is and are great offensively. We just saw how stubborn Babcock can be with his lines and not playing Kapanen with Matthews for the first few games of the year. Babcock is going to use Zaitsev and Hainsey on the pk because those are his guys, we won't get a look at Rielly until that changes ala Ennis and Kapanen. Rielly can't do much about how Babcock deploys him. Matthews plays significantly lower minutes than other star players due to Babcock as well, doesn't change the fact that he's a 1C, just like Rielly is a 1D.

 

[A1LeafNation]

I feel like Rielly and Zaitsev can be this teams top pair for the next 5-6 years playing 25 min per game.

 

[BlueForever75]

Burke's projection of Reilly's talent has been spot on. When drafted Burke said the Leafs had him ranked #1 in that draft class. Other then Flip Forsberg who has been better? Lindholm? Dumba? Trouba?

He's developed into a true #1 dman, if players like Seth Jones, or OEL, or older players like Keith, Carlson, and Pietrangelo can be considered #1's then Morgan is definitely in that conversation. There is an obvious elite tier of #1's like Hedman, Doughty, Karlsson, and Subban. But the Leafs do not need a dman as such.

Interesting enough, Llijegren was also supposed to be a top 5 pick in his draft. If he pans out like Reilly, the Leafs are laughing. Sandin and Durzi look like players as well.

 

[Cor]

Morgan Rielly is definitley in the coversation for one of the best from his draft class.

It's why we need to be patient with Liljegren and Sandin because they can also be key pieces to the team, but it may take 4 or 5 years after their draft to get up to that level.

I think Morgan Rielly is the best all-round player from the draft, with Gostisbehere being the best pure offensive guy, and then Filip Forsberg is obviously the best forward.