3 Potential Trade Destinations for Maple Leafs’ Morgan Rielly

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made some major changes this offseason, from their coaching staff to making some changes to their player personnel, but they still seem to have one thing left on their agenda to pull off this summer, and that is trading Morgan Rielly.

Rielly, who is 32 years old, has a $7.5 million annual cap hit and is extended through the 2029-30 season. After some of the additions the Maple Leafs made this offseason, they must move Rielly at some point to clear cap space and give themselves some extra flexibility, and considering his name has been out there in trade rumours all summer, it seems like a matter of when, not if, he’ll be traded.

Last season, Rielly scored 11 goals and added 25 assists for 36 points through 78 games with the Maple Leafs. Throughout his career, he has scored 98 goals and added 451 assists for 549 points through 951 games.

Rielly isn’t the most attractive defender in terms of actual defending, but his offensive side could give any team an offensive boost in their top-four.

Lots of rumours around Morgan Rielly's future with the Leafs and a potentially trade to another team. Genuinely skilled with the puck as a distributor, genuinely very poor defensively and always has been. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/TZWoIMGLxC

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) June 11, 2026

In this article, we take a quick look at three potential trade destinations for Rielly that are realistic and could use him heading into the 2026-27 season.

Anaheim Ducks

While the Anaheim Ducks have bigger things to focus on, with an offer sheet to Leo Carlsson, they need to try and do what they can to improve their defensive depth, and if they don’t end up matching the offer sheet and allow Carlsson to join the Philadelphia Flyers, Rielly could be someone they spend some of their cap space on.

The Ducks’ defensive depth is not strong at all, and might be the weakest blue line in the entire league. Considering they would like to push further into the playoffs next season, it wouldn’t hurt to add a veteran presence to replace what was lost with Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba no longer on their team.

Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins were one of the teams that Darnell Nurse was willing to waive his trade protection for, and while the Bruins were interested in getting a deal done, nothing came to fruition. Perhaps they could pivot to a different veteran in Rielly.

The Bruins are another team looking to make a deeper playoff run, and they are another team that needs to improve their defensive depth. They would likely prefer to have the Maple Leafs retain some of Rielly’s remaining salary, but if there is a reasonable deal on the table, they could benefit from adding an offensive-minded defender to their rotation.

Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers are another team that was in on Nurse before he was traded to the San Jose Sharks, and while they might be more focused on what’s about to happen with their offer sheet to Carlsson, they could soon pivot to adding Rielly.

Even if Carlsson ends up joining their team, they should have enough cap space to make a deal for Rielly work, and just like the Bruins and Ducks, the Flyers will be looking to make a deeper playoff run, but will need some reinforcements on the blue line if they hope to do that.

All three of these teams make sense as a fit for Rielly, all for similar reasons. A lot of teams might be waiting for what happens with Carlsson before they pivot to other players and shift their focus to other areas of their team.

Either way, I would be surprised if Rielly is with the Maple Leafs at the start of the 2026-27 season, and it wouldn’t be surprising if any of these three teams were where he gets moved.

As the 2026-27 season approaches, be sure to continue following The Hockey Writers as your source for news, updates, and more from around the NHL and the hockey world.