{"id":672625,"date":"2026-05-29T18:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672625\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:18:08","slug":"possible-trade-destinations-for-maple-leafs-defenceman-morgan-rielly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672625\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible trade destinations for Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Rielly<\/a> has spent May trying to help Canada have a positive experience at the world championship. And when the blue-liner returns from his international sojourn, there\u2019s some sense the months ahead might see him on the way to a new club team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Change is all around the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>, and with a new GM (John Chayka) in place and a coaching vacancy that will (presumably) be filled soon, one thing that remains constant is speculation that Rielly \u2014 the longest-tenured Leaf \u2014 has played his last game in blue and white.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to scroll down too far on Nick Kypreos\u2019 first off-season trade board<\/a>\u00a0to find Rielly\u2019s name. The Sportsnet insider believes the new Leafs regime is still open to dealing Rielly and that the 32-year-old \u2014 despite full no-move protection \u2014 wouldn\u2019t stand in the way of the right move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The way it\u2019s been told to me is that Toronto is looking into things, Rielly is aware of it, and that he will be presented with a few options if they arise. Rielly still has no-movement protection for the next two years, but the belief is that wouldn\u2019t be a major hurdle to overcome.”<\/p>\n

Rielly has four years left on a contract that accounts for an AAV of $7.5 million. In all likelihood, a team trading for him would assume full responsibility for those dollars \u2014 it\u2019s hard to imagine the Leafs retaining salary \u2014 with the understanding that you probably don\u2019t have to give up the sun and the moon to get him.<\/p>\n

Acquiring Rielly would be a bet that a guy with good mobility and a ton of playoff experience in a high-pressure market could thrive with a fresh start that allows him to relinquish years\u2019 worth of baggage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget, for all the ups and downs the regular season has brought him in Toronto, Rielly has typically risen to the occasion once the playoffs begin. Since the 2022 post-season, only five defencemen with at least 25 playoff games played in that time have a better points-per-game mark than Rielly\u2019s 0.74. That handful is Evan Bouchard (1.09), Cale Makar (1.07), Adam Fox (0.91), Victor Hedman (0.84) and Devon Toews (0.79).\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty serious company to keep, and when you consider the fact Rielly is still in his early 30s, it\u2019s easy to see why a club might want to be the second squad Rielly skates for in his long NHL career.<\/p>\n

Of course, we don\u2019t know exactly what the fifth-overall pick would favour in terms of a new landing spot. Presumably, he\u2019d like to join a team that\u2019s either an established contender or clearly on the rise. What we do know is Rielly\u2019s negotiated protection ensures he\u2019s signing off on any new home.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, let\u2019s play matchmaker and see which teams might be a fit.<\/p>\n

The Sharks have just two defencemen under contract for next season \u2014 Dmitry Orlov and Sam Dickinson \u2014 who played at least 70 games for the squad this past year. San Jose also had a lot of cap space, though big extensions are surely on the horizon for Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.<\/p>\n

The Sharks remained in the playoff hunt well into April and are looking to build on that by cracking the West\u2019s top eight next season. GM Mike Grier has already prioritized bringing in experienced vets Orlov, Tyler Toffoli and Kiefer Sherwood while his young core grows.<\/p>\n

Rielly would bring additional experience and a puck-moving ability that\u2019s in short supply on the Sharks back end. With the exception of Dickinson, most of San Jose\u2019s top young players are forwards, so you could see Grier pushing for a blueline boost.<\/p>\n

Chicago is in clear need of a step forward and, with the young talent assembled, it\u2019s not unreasonable to think the Hawks could be sniffing a wild-card berth next year.<\/p>\n

With Connor Murphy dealt away at the deadline, there\u2019s a dearth of veteran know-how on the Hawks back end. If Rielly had any trepidation about joining another team that missed the post-season this past year, it could be tempered by the possibility of a massive role on that squad.<\/p>\n

As the likes of Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel (both righties, by the way) find their NHL footing, Rielly could help shepherd them along.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jets always have to go about team-building a little different due to the fact the club is not a top free-agent destination, nor is it the type of place every established NHLer is going to waive a no-trade for.<\/p>\n

But what about a kid from Western Canada who played major junior hockey in Moose Jaw?<\/p>\n

Despite a down season, the Jets remain all-in on winning with an over-30 core. The team\u2019s top need is a second-line centre, but no sense waiting around to see what happens there.<\/p>\n

If you look at Winnipeg\u2019s defence, there\u2019s a job just waiting for Rielly as an over-qualified third-pair guy on the left side. With a top four of Josh Morrissey, Dylan DeMelo (Rielly\u2019s Canadian partner at the worlds), Dylan Samberg and Neal Pionk locked in, Rielly could jump on the third pair with right-shooting Elias Salomonsson and help bring along the talented 21-year-old (who won\u2019t actually be ready for training camp thanks to off-season shoulder surgery).<\/p>\n

What a top-to-bottom blueline that could be for the Jets.<\/p>\n

Rielly’s current contract was inked by Pens GM Kyle Dubas in 2021, when Dubas ran the Leafs.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh is coming off a surprise playoff appearance and has only two defencemen inked beyond this coming season. One of those players is 39-year-old Kris Letang and the Penguins\u2019 other high-profile vet, Erik Karlsson, is entering the final year of his deal and turns 36 on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could see where Rielly might serve as a bridge of sorts between the current blueline corps and the one Dubas is trying to build for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Ducks have already leaned into acquiring veteran D-men, trading for Jacob Trouba 16 months ago and grabbing John Carlson ahead of the most recent trade deadline in March.<\/p>\n

As it happens, Trouba (32), Carlson (36) and captain Radko Gudas (35) \u2014 all right-shot defencemen \u2014 are all eligible to hit the open market in July.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Ducks, looking to build on their fantastic season, hang onto a pair of those righties and swing a swap for Rielly to bring some balance and puck-moving to a team where young blueliners Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger have not yet established themselves the way the club surely hoped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The clear \u201cone of these things is not like the other\u201d club on this list, but we had to at least float Rielly\u2019s hometown team. Would he consider playing there for a year, even a year-and-a-half before the 2027 trade deadline to get the unique experience of performing at home while mentoring the next generation of Canucks?\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a perfect comparison because the timelines are a bit off, but defenceman Mike Matheson \u2014 like Rielly, a first-round pick in the 2012 draft \u2014 joined his hometown team in Montreal at the nadir of a rebuild and things went so well he\u2019s now playing huge minutes on a squad that made the Eastern Conference Final.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard Rielly\u2019s personal timeline to chase a Cup lining up with Vancouver\u2019s, but you never know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morgan Rielly has spent May trying to help Canada have a positive experience at the world championship. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-672625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}