The HFBoards Leaf Nation Initial Morgan Rielly Rating

[Leafs at Knight]

I guess a lot of people had really high expectations for Rielly considering the 5 or below votes. I tempered my expectations for him and he's been pretty good, Franson makes him look worse at times. Ranger makes him look like a god at times.

I would give him a 7 right now, he's been solid for the most part, didn't expect a whole lot more out of him.

And people stop putting a number with .5, those aren't options , round up or down...

 

[7even]

I guess a lot of people had really high expectations for Rielly considering the 5 or below votes. I tempered my expectations for him and he's been pretty good, Franson makes him look worse at times. Ranger makes him look like a god at times.

I would give him a 7 right now, he's been solid for the most part, didn't expect a whole lot more out of him.

And people stop putting a number with .5, those aren't options , round up or down...

Not sure if it's expectations. I think it just depends on how you're evaluating him. If you're comparing him against his peers as a 19 year old defenseman, he's been comparatively quite good. If you're comparing him against NHL defenders at large, he's been pretty average.

 

[Quares27]

I'd say 6, maybe 5

 

[ponder]

He's been really good so far. Brimming with talent, terrific skater with top notch hockey sense who can really handle the puck. The best surprise is that he's shown some very nice flashes defensively - far from a finished product, but has made some very good defensive plays, impressive for a 19 year old offensive dman.

Obviously he's not a guy with a large positive impact yet, but 19 is extremely young for a dman, especially one with Rielly's style (outstanding upside, but not a "ready to go" 2-way dman like Jones or Trouba at 18). Let's also not forget that he missed more or less an entire year of development due to his knee injury, he's essentially had just 2 years in the WHL before jumping right into the NHL.

I've been impressed enough that I'll be legitimately surprised if he's NOT a good top pairing dman in his prime. Not in the next few years or anything, but he's so talented that I think he's virtually a lock to be a star eventually.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

In between a 6 and 7. Played well, better than I anticipated. Think alot of the heat he's taking is cause of who hes playing with (Franson). I think if he was put with Fraser he'd play alot better. Id say hes been our 3rd or 4th best defenceman.

1. Phaneuf




2. Gardiner
3. Rielly/Gunnarsson
4. Gunnarsson/Rielly
5. Franson




6. Ranger

Agree. Rielly seems like an 7.5 to me. A top 4 defenceman with the potential to be on the top pair. He has a very high IQ, work ethic, and may end up developing into the perfect partner for Phaneuf. We need to be building around Dion starting with our own Brodin/ Seabrook.

 

[TheLeastOfTheBunch]

6, he's getting there