Is Rielly More Similar To McCabe, Phaneuf And Gardiner Than We Hoped?

[HC7]

To the surprise of no one, Morgan Rielly is the only Leafs D that has been on the ice for more goals against than for at even strength.

Whatever offence he brings he gives it right back at the other end and then some.

 

[Notsince67]

There is a huge gap between not being a Hedman and being like a Phaneuf.

 

[Myopic]

Defensively, he's AHL caliber. That's a GD fact!

Folks chit on him because he sucks as a defenseman. He's an "offenseman".

Gardiner made so many glaringly boneheaded plays that it took the spotlight off of Morgan who is equally as bad in his own end.

It's not that Toronto is hard on defensemen. That's a bunch of nonsense that the brain-dead homers around here like to spout and make excuses for the guy. I guess we're supposed to love everything about an organization that hasn't won squat in 50+ years.

 

[Dave92]

Offensive defensemen are always overrated. They all get somewhat exposed if they don't have a good stay at home partner.

 

[rumman]

The real elephant in the room is what will his contract expectations be going forward, because he doesn’t merit a raise imo, so getting close to the time to make a decision on Morgan. Personally he has been on decline for a while, not good for a team still learning how to play effective team defence.

 

[geo25]

Finally a thread worth discussing that is without bias.
It's a valid point actually. I will say Rielly probably has the most character from all of them, but there is no question he is similar in terms of bad defensive play on a nightly basis. It makes me upset the game Gardiner got booed, so maybe this is what those fans deserve on whats happened with Morgan.
As someone who loved Rielly, I'm over him. You can't have your best d man be one of the worst defensively in the league. Dubas needs to make a hard decision here

 

[LeafGrief]

All of those guys were pretty effective top4 or even top pairing defensemen for a long time and Rielly blows the doors off them offensively. Defensemen make mistakes, even the elite Norris trophy winners. Yeah, Rielly isn't good defensively and makes more mistakes than average, including egregious ones like Monday's game. But he consistently outplays the opposition and helps us score more than we let in. This fanbase is unreasonably hard on defensemen over the age of 23. Mistake free defensive hockey doesn't happen and players like Rielly make egregious errors because that's how you manage to get 60 points from the blueline. Rielly had a bad game on Monday, but hating the player because you wish he was Lidstrom is not his fault.