{"id":581405,"date":"2026-04-04T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581405\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:06:11","slug":"maple-leafs-talking-big-blue-line-trade-despite-no-gm-the-hockey-writers-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581405\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Talking Big Blue Line Trade Despite No GM – The Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apparently, just because the Toronto Maple Leafs are sans an active general manager doesn\u2019t mean business has stopped. Nor have trade discussions. According to Sportsnet\u2019s Nick Kypreos, the organization will continue to look at its options, including a trade involving Morgan Rielly<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Kypreos writes<\/a>, \u201cEven without a GM in place, you have to wonder if the next half dozen games could be Morgan Rielly\u2019s last as a Maple Leaf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs Are Looking to Shake Up Their Defense<\/p>\n

Kypreos contends that whatever retooling the Maple Leafs undertake, it will likely include moving pieces on their blue line. The top name linked to those changes is Morgan Rielly. The NHL analyst and former player also suggests that the team might not wait for a new manager or President of Hockey Operations to be hired if the opportunity to pull the trigger on a trade presents itself. <\/p>\n

\"TorontoToronto Maple Leafs Morgan Rielly (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

As per Kypreos:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven without a new GM in place, as Ryan Hardy and Brandon Pridham are at the helm in the interim, many industry sources believe the Leafs will still be looking at options to move on from their longest-tenured player. A buyout is unlikely, considering he has four years left on his contract. Rielly has a no-movement clause for the next two seasons as well, but expect the club to do its best to convince him to waive it to make a creative trade and send him to a place of his liking.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, those still managing the day-to-day in Toronto intend to talk with Rielly and let him know that they don\u2019t necessarily see him as part of the future. <\/p>\n

Will Anyone Want to Take on Rielly\u2019s Contract?<\/p>\n

Outside of the issue that Rielly holds a lot of the cards right now, there\u2019s also the not-so-small matter of whether a team would want to take him on, even if he agreed to go. If the Leafs are retooling, he might be open to moving. However, which teams will be eager to take on a $7.5 million defenseman for four more seasons? <\/p>\n

Related: Brad Treliving\u2019s Worst Moves as Maple Leafs General Manager<\/a><\/p>\n

At his full price, the answer might be no one. <\/p>\n

However, Kypreos believes the Maple Leafs will be open to helping out. If they take on some money in the trade, there are teams that believe Rielly has value. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs many NHL teams have informed me, they still see a good and serviceable player in Rielly who could be rejuvenated under the right circumstances,\u201d writes Kypreos. However, it\u2019s not going to be cheap to facilitate the deal. \u201cBut for that to happen, the Maple Leafs may need to retain as much as 50 percent of the $7.5 million AAV he has, and throw in a draft pick sweetener.\u201d<\/p>\n

This leaves Toronto in a tricky spot. Retain half on Rielly or buy out his contract and eat about the same money. The latter doesn\u2019t require adding a sweetener. But if a team doesn\u2019t need Toronto to retain half and can get away with retaining $2 million or so, that might be something to consider. <\/p>\n

Questions about whether the incoming GM would be on board with such a deal seem irrelevant given Kypreos\u2019s report. But, it also could explain why the Leafs want to have a search firm hired by the end of the week and the process to hire someone might not take that long. <\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apparently, just because the Toronto Maple Leafs are sans an active general manager doesn\u2019t mean business has stopped.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,48555,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-581405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-morgan-rielly","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}