The thing with Reilly is that he's proven he's too good to go back to Juniors. I'm happy with him being on the Leafs where he can learn instead of being in Juniors developing bad habits out of boredom.
he's proved absolutely 0 to date; the preseason is meaningless, so we'll see how he does. They could destroy him by keeping him all year, and there are no players I can think of who got worse by playing an extra year in JR. Hopefully moosejaw can trade him to a contender and he can play a key role on the World Jr. team, giving him amazing big game experience that is needed more so than skills development.
The only thing he has proved is he has the capability of being a NHLer at some point.
the first word in defenceman is defence - and that is something that he will need to focus on in the first 10 games he plays or he MUST go back, not only for this development both physically and mentally but also for roster considerations with the Leafs. We are effectively rolling 3 lines for the first 10 games until Clarkson can come back because they want Reilly who should max out at 15mins a game.
Liles may be past his prime, but he's not past being a quality NHL vet and his cap savings is negligible.
Let the kid play his 10 games and if he is truly a standout player in those first few weeks, then keep him.
