I'll take the younger d-man who has played over 300 NHL games, and is now on a playoff teams top pairing and the kid who put up 61 points in his 20 year old season and may transition to Center
I hate to break it to you, but Slavin is younger than Rielly.
Slavin being better than Rielly is a myth. He had a better season. Doesn't mean he's a better player.
- Rielly was playing more minutes, and against a higher Quality of Competition than Slavin. Despite that, Slavin's possession impact is minimal over Reilly's. When you actually adjust, Rielly is the better possession player.
- Rielly got minimal powerplay time last season. Slavin was a regular. Considering the success of the Leafs powerplay, had he been on it, his point totals would have been higher, likely higher than Slavin's.
ESTOI/GP: Slavin 19:23; Rielly: 18:49
SH TOI/GP: Slavin 3:07; Rielly: 2:22
PP TOI/GP: Slavin: 0:55; Rielly: 0:58
Slavin played more minutes ES and SH than Rielly. If you watched the Canes, you'd know that Slavin basically got mop up duty on the PP as they wanted him out there when the penalty ended so he wasn't a "regular" on the PP. I know both players played the toughest minutes on their respective teams.
I do agree with you that the gap isn't as much as some in this thread are implying though. I am, and have been a Rielly fan all along and think he's better than many people think. Rielly, IMO, has better offensive skills/potential and Slavin has better defensive skills/potential. I also don't think the gap between Aho and Nylander is as big as some are implying.
Close poll.
Slavin being better than Rielly is a myth. He had a better season. Doesn't mean he's a better player.
- Rielly was playing against a higher Quality of Competition than Slavin. Despite that, Slavin's possession impact is minimal over Reilly's. When you actually adjust, Rielly is the better possession player.
- Rielly got minimal powerplay time last season. Considering the success of the Leafs powerplay, had he been on it, his point totals would have been higher, likely higher than Slavin's.
- Morgan Reilly's primary points/hr is higher, while shot impact/hr is on par (Rielly better generation, Slavin better suppression, not adjusted for QOC)
- Slavin's PDO was at 101.0, which suggests he's due for a slight regression, while Reilly's PDO was down at 97, which suggests he's due for quiet the bounce back season.
Jacob Slavin is good, had a terrific season, however Rielly is at worst on par, and looking at analytics is superior despite the down season.
Maybe this is part the reason why the Leafs PP improved to #2 last year. It's not as if Rielly has a better skill set that anything that Zaitsev or Gardiner offer to the PP. His shot is not the greatest slow release and power wise. He can pass the puck, but so can others. It's an assumption Rielly would rack of PP points as we have not seen this yet in his career. BTW I am curious why did you vote as a Canes fan for Nylander/Rielly in this poll?
I stand corrected on the Slavin being a regular on the PP. Thought he was.
FYI, Rielly-Zaitsev as a pair faced the second highest QOC in the league, Rielly was 7th among all D individually. Slavin wasn't even top 20 IIRC.
So while Slavin may have had the highest QOC on the Canes, it still doesn't compare, because Rielly faced insane competition.
The good news is, it seems like Babs is going to try and balence out the QOC this season, so that's gonna to help Rielly immensely.
Slavin being better than Rielly is a myth. He had a better season. Doesn't mean he's a better player.
- Rielly was playing against a higher Quality of Competition than Slavin. Despite that, Slavin's possession impact is minimal over Reilly's. When you actually adjust, Rielly is the better possession player.
- Rielly got minimal powerplay time last season. Considering the success of the Leafs powerplay, had he been on it, his point totals would have been higher, likely higher than Slavin's.
- Morgan Reilly's primary points/hr is higher, while shot impact/hr is on par (Rielly better generation, Slavin better suppression, not adjusted for QOC)
- Slavin's PDO was at 101.0, which suggests he's due for a slight regression, while Reilly's PDO was down at 97, which suggests he's due for quiet the bounce back season.
Jacob Slavin is good, had a terrific season, however Rielly is at worst on par, and looking at analytics is superior despite the down season.
I'll take the younger d-man who has played over 300 NHL games, and is now on a playoff teams top pairing and the kid who put up 61 points in his 20 year old season and may transition to Center
Slavin >> Rielly. Not even a discussion, even most leafs fans see this.Slavin being better than Rielly is a myth. He had a better season. Doesn't mean he's a better player.
- Rielly was playing against a higher Quality of Competition than Slavin. Despite that, Slavin's possession impact is minimal over Reilly's. When you actually adjust, Rielly is the better possession player.
- Rielly got minimal powerplay time last season. Considering the success of the Leafs powerplay, had he been on it, his point totals would have been higher, likely higher than Slavin's.
- Morgan Reilly's primary points/hr is higher, while shot impact/hr is on par (Rielly better generation, Slavin better suppression, not adjusted for QOC)
- Slavin's PDO was at 101.0, which suggests he's due for a slight regression, while Reilly's PDO was down at 97, which suggests he's due for quiet the bounce back season.
Jacob Slavin is good, had a terrific season, however Rielly is at worst on par, and looking at analytics is superior despite the down season.
NO.
Adding the talent of Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Brown specifically to career seasons from Kadri and Gardiner did though.
Rielly's passing ability is easily tops on our defense. His slapshot is nothing to write home about, but his wrister gets through and on net pretty consistently. And his release isn't particularly slow as you claim.
Actually, you stand corrected on their ages (you said Rielly was younger), OA TOI (you said Rielly played more minutes), and PP TOI. It's not a big deal, but your posts lose some credibility when you have some basic facts wrong. It also indicates (maybe incorrectly) that you haven't watched Slavin much and are going simply off of stats.
Point being, Slavin still faced very tough competition in all situations and did fantastic against it so it does compare. I watched both players extensively as the Leafs are my 2nd team and I'm a big Rielly fan. Slavin, is a superior player defensively. He's almost robotic in that he rarely makes a mistake and every decision defensively is the right one. Rielly just isn't as good defensively as Slavin is, competition or not.
That said, I think Rielly is better offensively and has more offensive potential than Slavin and do agree that if he was used in a more offensive role, he'd outproduced Slavin. The same way defense comes naturally to Slavin, Rielly is more natural when it comes to offense than Slavin is. Also, with Faulk and Hanifin, I don't see Slavin ever getting much PP time on Carolina other than being sent out at the end of a PP as he was this year.
Hopefully, as you said, Rielly is able to be used in a more balanced role this year as I think he can be a solid 40+ point defenseman. I'm not sure how I feel about him being paired up with Hainsey.