If you had to do the draft all over again, maybe Nashville centre Filip Forsberg would have gone first overall. That is, if you don’t favour a goalie such as Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th), Frederik Andersen (87th) or Connor Hellebuyck (130th).
But if you want a No. 1 defenceman — and which team doesn’t? — then you’d take Rielly ahead of Hampus Lindholm or Jacob Trouba. You couldn’t really say that about him last year or in any of the years before.
Rielly was good, but he wasn’t great. He was, at best, a No. 2. He was the kind of defenceman who played a ton of minutes and in a variety of situations, but who didn’t put up a ton of points.
This year, that’s changed. We’re only four games into the season, but with a league-best 10 points (heading into Wednesday’s play), it’s becoming immediately clear Rielly is going to have a monster year offensively. He might not put up Erik Karlsson-type numbers. But now that he’s passing the puck to some of the most talented forwards in the NHL, you can pencil him in for at least 70 points.
The question is whether that gets him noticed for the Norris Trophy, which is as much about points as it is about reputation.
In the previous five years, Rielly has never received even a single vote for the award. A big reason for that is a lack of production. Rielly, who had a career-best 52 points last season, tied with Jake Gardiner for 15th among defencemen in scoring. It was the only time he’s ever been ranked in the top 30.
Now that he’s quarterbacking a dangerous power-play unit that includes Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner, it’s not unrealistic to suggest he could finish in the top five.
If so, you can expect that he’ll get some Norris Trophy recognition.