Morgan Rielly is about to enter his 14th NHL season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but there's been intense trade speculation that the defenseman addressed this week. Are we about to see Rielly traded out of Toronto, or is he going to be a Maple Leaf for life?
When Morgan Rielly appeared at the Hockey Night in Brampton charity event on Wednesday night, you could see how much he valued being a Toronto Maple Leaf.
It’s rare for any NHLer to stay in the same market for 13 years, let alone be a staple in the always-volatile Toronto market.
There’s been plenty of speculation about Rielly’s future, with many expecting him to eventually be traded out of Toronto. But from the sound of things, the Maple Leafs are going to head into the 2026-27 season with Rielly playing on their top defensive pairing alongside newcomer Darren Raddysh.
So what’s fair to expect out of Rielly next season?
Expectations have naturally shifted after Raddysh took over as the team's highest-paid blueliner. The spotlight is going to focus on Raddysh, and that should allow Rielly to operate more in the background in a way that hasn’t happened since he was drafted back in 2012.
That doesn't mean Rielly is going to be a ghost in the Maple Leafs’ dressing room. They’ll need a bounce-back season from him to get back to the Stanley Cup playoffs, or to showcase himself for an eventual trade out of Toronto.
Rielly's 2025-26 season was underwhelming, but it was far from horrendous. He scored 11 goals, the second-highest total of his career, and finished with 36 points in 78 games. But the Maple Leafs have been looking for ways to get his game to another level, and there have only been inconsistent flashes ever since.
Even if he's closer to his 2023-24 campaign, where Rielly produced 58 points in 72 games, GM John Chayka will be thrilled. That opens up the opportunity to either hang on to him or drum up interest on the trade market with his value higher than it is now.
If what the Maple Leafs want out of any Rielly trade is salary cap space, it should be easy to find a legitimate Cup contender to take a chance on a rejuvenated offensive-defenseman.
He’ll have another three seasons on his current contract after 2025-26, and that will be a more palatable financial commitment than taking on his $7.5-million cap hit for an additional fourth season. But Rielly has to show he’s still got enough left in the tank to be a top-four defender on a playoff-bound team.
If the Edmonton Oilers were able to get out of defenseman Darnell Nurse’s contract, Chayka should be able to eventually unload Rielly’s. With the salary cap rising, there will likely be a few teams interested in acquiring him.
Although, there's always the possibility that he and the Maple Leafs thrive out of the gate with their new-look roster, and the Leafs decide to keep Rielly for the foreseeable future. While that could prove to be exceedingly optimistic for a player who will be 33 in March, you shouldn't count out him from authoring a bounce-back campaign.
Rielly’s relatively high salary means he’ll still have to produce, but he's been insulated by the Raddysh acquisition, making a 40 to 50-point season a reasonable goal for him to target. Anything beyond that will delight the Maple Leafs brass and give them more than one option to explore when discussing his future.
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