With all the talk surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs defense with their play and inconsistencies two months into the 2023-24 season, the team has something positive to look forward to.
The resurgence and dominance of top defender Morgan Rielly.
For all the talk that has been on Quinn Hughes’ fantastic start to the season and Cale Makar’s dominance– and rightfully so– Rielly still seems to get lost in the conversation because he doesn’t have that high end production like those mentioned. While he isn’t on the torrid pace that those players are on, he’s still effective with his production early on this season as well as his play off the puck.
Overall, he’s making a positive impact as well as showing a strong sense of purpose like he did during the 2023 playoffs. He looks to once again have found his footing and is back to being the all-situation defenseman the team needs.
Rielly Back to Producing
Needless to say, it wasn’t that great of a season in 2022-23 for Rielly as he struggled throughout.
He dealt with an injury in November that forced him to miss some time and when he returned, his timing was off. Defensively, he was missing assignments and while he was producing offensively with the assists, the goals weren’t coming as he didn’t score his first goal of the season until late January.
He finished last season with four, which is kind of a surprise to see as he has hit the double-digit mark twice before. However, the goal scoring showed up during the post season where he had four in 11 games. That has carried over into this season, where Rielly is one goal away from matching last season’s total. He’s definitely on a mission this season and his production is reflective of that.
Rielly currently ranks 13th among defenseman in points with 15 and 16th in points per game with 0.88. With that he’s on the same P/G pace that he previously set in 2018-19 where he had 72 points, finishing fifth in Norris Trophy voting. Even looking at his underlying numbers with defenders who have played a minimum of 300 minutes at five-on-five, he ranks 18th in Corsi for percentage with 52.04 and is 16th goals for percentage with 59.38.
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While Rielly’s expected goals for of 48.30 is just below the league average, to be ranked in the top-20 in some of those offensive categories with the minutes he has earned this season is impressive. He’s eighth in time on ice per game with 24:46 and first in even strength ice time with 21:59. He has been a workhorse this season all while seeing a decrease in power play minutes. He’s still seeing 58% of his starts in the offensive zone at 5-on-5 and 47.1% overall in his defensive end, his fifth best of his career. Those offensive zone starts are a big reason why he has the results and effect that he’s having.
As a result, it’s hard not to notice that along with his presence and mindset when he’s on the ice.
Impact Is Being Felt
While the consistency of the production appears to be back on track for Rielly, it’s his overall play and demeanour when he’s on the ice that makes him standout. The consistency on both sides of the puck from the Maple Leafs’ top defender is definitely something that can be seen as a big positive.
As teammate Mark Giordano puts it, “he deserves more credit than he has been given.” There definitely should be more attention on Rielly this season as he continues to fly under the radar, while still being a strong top pairing defender. (from, Maple Leafs’ Morgan Rielly using 2023 post-season as springboard to success’, Toronto Sun – 10/31/23)
Rielly doesn’t have the dynamic and blazing speed from the backend, but he’s making smart decisions with his zone entries and doing a great job of getting pucks on net. He’s making himself open more often for a shooting opportunity and is doing a great job at sneaking in undetected for a scoring chance. There appears to be a new found sense of purpose when he’s out there, but this time around, his play away from the puck is becoming more profound and impactful. He’s very sound positionally, not cheating or getting out of position as often and he’s even playing the body more as he has 18 hits this season.
He’s a man on a mission every time he’s out and even when things look rough, he comes through. Just like this play during the Global Series against the Minnesota Wild.
In overtime, Rielly is quickly put into a position where he has to defend a two-on-one. As Marcus Johansson enters the zone, Rielly does a great job to take away the passing option forcing Johansson to shoot. Rielly times the shot perfectly, quickly locates the puck and makes a quick outlet pass to William Nylander as he scores the game-winning goal.
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Plays like that may be forgotten, but they should serve as reassurance that Rielly will do whatever it takes to give his team the win. The dedication and plays like this are what made him so dominant during the playoffs as Rielly shows no signs of slowing down.
Rielly Should Get More Attention
Whether or not the John Klingberg signing made him more motivated than before, Rielly is showing that he’s one of the top defensemen in this league. As a result, there should be more attention given to him as he’s standing out offensively and defensively.
Given how the defense has been a big question mark this season, there have been zero questions in regards to Rielly’s play. He’s leading the blueline and everyone should be taking note as to how he approaches each game and each situation. He’s showing the competitive drive and leadership with this defensive core, leading by example on and off the ice.
There really should be more of a focus on Reilly as he continues to standout during the season.
Statistics from Natural Stat Trick, NHL and Hockey Reference.
