Player Discussion Morgan Rielly

[rumman]

The worst part is his suspension was arguably his season highlight. Showed a heart and soul moment and sent the team on a hot streak… without him.

Harkens back to the team thriving while Styles sat out with his contract dispute, only upon his return did the team start sucking……..

Reputation? Yes, a richly earned one. The guy was our best player in the playoffs just last year.

If anything, some folks are underrating the fact that he's on the ice for 24 competent minutes/game.

His only weakness is special teams.



We also have a great record without Matthews, should we punt him to the moon as well?

If the shoe fits………

 

[Kurtz]

Agree to disagree. Team doesn’t miss him at all when he’s not in the lineup and the defensive structure looks a lot cleaner. Short term sample and obviously we would need another offensive defenseman in his place but pretty sure a lot of guys feeding the forward group would get their cookies. I’m not looking for a Cookie Monster on D.

And yet he's the only dman on the team getting those cookies. Must not be as easy as you think.

We need more offensive dmen on the team, not less...

 

[Stephen]

Reputation? Yes, a richly earned one. The guy was our best player in the playoffs just last year.

If anything, some folks are underrating the fact that he's on the ice for 24 competent minutes/game.

His only weakness is special teams.



We also have a great record without Matthews, should we punt him to the moon as well?

-Rielly does not really play physical game (willing to or able to, not sure which).
-Rielly is extremely vulnerable to cycles down low and getting spin cycled in coverage to lose his man.
-Rielly is very weak defending odd man rushes, turning 2 on 1’s into absolute fire drills.
-Rielly is a puck watcher.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t have a stretch pass.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t carry the puck through the neutral zone efficiently with pace.
-Rielly is poor on the PP, with predictable passes, no shot threat, no agility walking the line, changing angles and being unpredictable. Sluggish in transition on the PPQB role in general.

-Rielly is good at the Lone Ranger rush. Which is he skates up the ice in a straight line towards the opposition net on a pre-determined flight plan with no deviation and minimal puck distribution.
-Rielly is good at joining the rush as the trailing man.
-Rielly is good at pinching at the blueline and keeping the puck in.
-Rielly had a good stats line and a Tampa series in 2023.

Those are the pros and cons. If we want to talk about his richly deserved reputation, we have 1 series win spanning the 11 or so years he’s been a Leaf. We’re basically the brand name version of the Minnesota Wild. So I look back on all of this and don’t see a lot.

As far as the Matthews whataboutism, I’ll take the extreme position and just say we shouldn’t have any sacred cows.

 

[IPS]

-Rielly does not really play physical game (willing to or able to, not sure which).
-Rielly is extremely vulnerable to cycles down low and getting spin cycled in coverage to lose his man.
-Rielly is very weak defending odd man rushes, turning 2 on 1’s into absolute fire drills.
-Rielly is a puck watcher.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t have a stretch pass.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t carry the puck through the neutral zone efficiently with pace.
-Rielly is poor on the PP, with predictable passes, no shot threat, no agility walking the line, changing angles and being unpredictable. Sluggish in transition on the PPQB role in general.

-Rielly is good at the Lone Ranger rush. Which is he skates up the ice in a straight line towards the opposition net on a pre-determined flight plan with no deviation and minimal puck distribution.
-Rielly is good at joining the rush as the trailing man.
-Rielly is good at pinching at the blueline and keeping the puck in.
-Rielly had a good stats line and a Tampa series in 2023.

Those are the pros and cons. If we want to talk about his richly deserved reputation, we have 1 series win spanning the 11 or so years he’s been a Leaf. We’re basically the brand name version of the Minnesota Wild. So I look back on all of this and don’t see a lot.

As far as the Matthews whataboutism, I’ll take the extreme position and just say we shouldn’t have any sacred cows.

When you add it up like this, this seems like way too many things missing from a D's game for them to be considered a top pair, let alone a #1D. None of it is even wrong either.

THIS. Many bemoan the Leafs can’t exit the zone eithout Rielly’s ability, but they always do fine when he’s injured or sitting because he did something stupid and got suspended……..

Weird enough the transition game looked even a bit better without him.

Rielly fell off this year no doubt.

 

[Kurtz]

-Rielly does not really play physical game (willing to or able to, not sure which).
-Rielly is extremely vulnerable to cycles down low and getting spin cycled in coverage to lose his man.
-Rielly is very weak defending odd man rushes, turning 2 on 1’s into absolute fire drills.
-Rielly is a puck watcher.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t have a stretch pass.
-Rielly is poor at the transition game. He doesn’t carry the puck through the neutral zone efficiently with pace.
-Rielly is poor on the PP, with predictable passes, no shot threat, no agility walking the line, changing angles and being unpredictable. Sluggish in transition on the PPQB role in general.

-Rielly is good at the Lone Ranger rush. Which is he skates up the ice in a straight line towards the opposition net on a pre-determined flight plan with no deviation and minimal puck distribution.
-Rielly is good at joining the rush as the trailing man.
-Rielly is good at pinching at the blueline and keeping the puck in.
-Rielly had a good stats line and a Tampa series in 2023.

As far as the Matthews whataboutism, I’ll take the extreme position and just say we shouldn’t have any sacred cows.

There's no whataboutism, merely a lesson in not being a victim of the moment and having a dreadfully short memory.

He's fine in all of those aspects you've mentioned, except yes, the 2 on 1s and a mediocre shot. Take physicality for example - certainly that's not a strength for him but it's not a weakness either, you don't see him getting muscled off the puck or lose a disproportionate amount of battles.

The transition issues you've mentioned are likely system issues - Morgan has the skillset to be a strong transition player.

I think in general, your expectations of what a $7.5m dman should look like are out of whack.

 

[Stephen]

When you add it up like this, this seems like way too many things missing from a D's game for them to be considered a top pair, let alone a #1D. None of it is even wrong either.


Weird enough the transition game looked even a bit better without him.

Rielly fell off this year no doubt.

Like I said. He’s a number 3 when you watch him play. He’s not actually that good.

The whole talking point around Rielly has been that we need a partner to play with him. Since the Hainsey days. However we all know true number one defensemen shelter weaker partners and make them better. So are we implicitly saying we need a stronger 1D beside him to shelter Rielly?

Well, extend that logic, imagine we had the stronger 1D who can carry a defensive partner. One who can also play on the PP as QB. Suddenly that would then bump Rielly into the 3 hole where he belongs. But you’ve also taken him off the unit where he can build his offensive stats… and at $7.5 million, why do we have Rielly at all?

If the Leafs are actually able to get a top pairing defenseman, the guy is both redundant and a resource impediment to fitting that new alpha under the cap.

I say it one more time, Rielly’s gotta go. I get that he’s a popular character but from a pure roster building perspective, nope.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

When you add it up like this, this seems like way too many things missing from a D's game for them to be considered a top pair, let alone a #1D. None of it is even wrong either.


Weird enough the transition game looked even a bit better without him.

Rielly fell off this year no doubt.

I've said it all along, he's a very good #3 on a contending team, good #2 on any other team. He certainly shouldn't be quarterbacking any power plays or killing penalties...just too many warts to his game defensively and offensively. I'm not saying trade him, but we shouldn't be playing him 23 minutes a game and think he's a #1 if we have SC aspirations.

 

[LeafGrief]

Rielly is surfing on reputation at this point. There are frankly more holes to his game than strengths at this point when you add it all up.

Strong, strong, STRONG disagree.

Rielly played like garbage this playoffs, but let's look at what his garbage is.

24:50 minutes per game (20 mins at ES).
+2
3A (all ES, tied for team lead)
34% dZone starts (most offensive zone starts out of all D)
55% CF% at ES
PP sucked ass
Rarely PK's

The most simple fact is that Mo is largely reliable to tilt the ice in the Leafs favour for 20+ minutes of ES a night. He wins the advanced stats battle, he produces offence, he has brain farts but doesn't get scored on very much. Quite simply, we are a better team with him on the ice than with him off the ice, and he plays an elite #1 share of ice time. He doesn't have the shutdown defensive capabilities where you can match him up against the other team's #1 threats, but he wins his matchups game-in-game-out ever year, whether it's fall or spring.

It doesn't really matter how many holes he has to his game when the literal reality of his game is that he plays 20 minutes ES a night and we score more goals than the other team when he's on the ice. Is he totally mediocre on the PP? Absolutely, we need a guy who can do that job. Can he shut down McDavid? No, we need a guy who can do that job. But the holes in his game do not outweigh the fact that the guy plays 20 ES minutes a night and wins them, every single night. He's not an elite puck mover or elite offensive threat, but he's not a giveaway machine and he's not a riverboat gambler either.

And then there's the fact that Mo was our best player the last two playoff runs. On the nights where we were dead fish, he was the one who looked like he gave a damn. 12 points in 11 games last year (4g, 7a at ES), 6p in 7g the year before. 24 minutes a night, 22.5 minutes a night. Guy was literally +11 last year and +3 in the Florida series.

He's not coasting on reputation, the knives are just out because he was well below his own standard this year. If there is a single player on the team who has earned a little bit of rope, it's Morgan Rielly. We need players who can complement him and fill in for his strengths, but the notion that the juice isn't worth the squeeze is preposterous.

 

[Kurtz]

Like I said. He’s a number 3 when you watch him play. He’s not actually that good.

The whole talking point around Rielly has been that we need a partner to play with him. Since the Hainsey days. However we all know true number one defensemen shelter weaker partners and make them better. So are we implicitly saying we need a stronger 1D beside him to shelter Rielly?

Well, extend that logic, imagine we had the stronger 1D who can carry a defensive partner. One who can also play on the PP as QB. Suddenly that would then bump Rielly into the 3 hole where he belongs. But you’ve also taken him off the unit where he can build his offensive stats… and at $7.5 million, why do we have Rielly at all?

If the Leafs are actually able to get a top pairing defenseman, the guy is both redundant and a resource impediment to fitting that new alpha under the cap.

I say it one more time, Rielly’s gotta go. I get that he’s a popular character but from a pure roster building perspective, nope.

Also inaccurate. Morgan has looked good playing with Schenn and Lybushkin as well. Both guys went from marginal NHL dmen to defensive studs when paired with him.

Calling him a PP point merchant is also inappropriate. Montour for example has accrued about half of his points on the PP last two seasons - that would be more fitting of the definition. For Morgan, it's closer to a third.

 

[IPS]

Like I said. He’s a number 3 when you watch him play. He’s not actually that good.

The whole talking point around Rielly has been that we need a partner to play with him. Since the Hainsey days. However we all know true number one defensemen shelter weaker partners and make them better. So are we implicitly saying we need a stronger 1D beside him to shelter Rielly?

Well, extend that logic, imagine we had the stronger 1D who can carry a defensive partner. One who can also play on the PP as QB. Suddenly that would then bump Rielly into the 3 hole where he belongs. But you’ve also taken him off the unit where he can build his offensive stats… and at $7.5 million, why do we have Rielly at all?

If the Leafs are actually able to get a top pairing defenseman, the guy is both redundant and a resource impediment to fitting that new alpha under the cap.

I say it one more time, Rielly’s gotta go. I get that he’s a popular character but from a pure roster building perspective, nope.

It really does pile onto the fact that this team is truly nowhere even close to contending for anything. If your best D has all those weaknesses and you fixing the D is going to drive the one positive part of his game down (his offense) then at what point do you realize it's just counterproductive and it's best just to move on from the player.

The real problem with being the perceived best player in the playoffs for the Leafs is that that's not saying much at all, our players are kind of notorious for turning up like crap in the postseason, you don't need to do much to stand out. This year kind of went against that narrative too, we hand good standouts in Lyubhskin, McCabe and Benoit, and Rielly all of a sudden didn't stand out so much.

 

[Stephen]

Also inaccurate. Morgan has looked good playing with Schenn and Lybushkin as well. Both guys went from marginal NHL dmen to defensive studs when paired with him.

Calling him a PP point merchant is also inappropriate. Montour for example has accrued about half of his points on the PP last two seasons - that would be more fitting of the definition. For Morgan, it's closer to a third.

Schenn and Lyubushkin aren’t exactly marginal NHL defensemen. It just comes from some misguided prejudice against big,
physical types that don’t play an offensive or skilled role that some people over value. They fill specific roles.

Now, to the crux of the problem. Schenn and Lyubushkin have played in 4 separate playoff rounds with Rielly over the past few seasons. Schenn in 2 series in 2023 and Lyubushkin spread out in 2 tours of duty. What did we exactly win with Rielly in his prime playing beside two accessory stay at home defensemen? One playoff round. What more do we need to surround Rielly with to win 2 rounds? Get past the conference finals? Win a Stanley Cup?

Suddenly you realize winning a cup with Rielly as a 1D will never work unless you put him behind a true number one and maybe a number 2. But we don’t need to pay Rielly for what he does in a 3 slot.

 

[Stephen]

Strong, strong, STRONG disagree.

Rielly played like garbage this playoffs, but let's look at what his garbage is.

24:50 minutes per game (20 mins at ES).
+2
3A (all ES, tied for team lead)
34% dZone starts (most offensive zone starts out of all D)
55% CF% at ES
PP sucked ass
Rarely PK's

The most simple fact is that Mo is largely reliable to tilt the ice in the Leafs favour for 20+ minutes of ES a night. He wins the advanced stats battle, he produces offence, he has brain farts but doesn't get scored on very much. Quite simply, we are a better team with him on the ice than with him off the ice, and he plays an elite #1 share of ice time. He doesn't have the shutdown defensive capabilities where you can match him up against the other team's #1 threats, but he wins his matchups game-in-game-out ever year, whether it's fall or spring.

It doesn't really matter how many holes he has to his game when the literal reality of his game is that he plays 20 minutes ES a night and we score more goals than the other team when he's on the ice. Is he totally mediocre on the PP? Absolutely, we need a guy who can do that job. Can he shut down McDavid? No, we need a guy who can do that job. But the holes in his game do not outweigh the fact that the guy plays 20 ES minutes a night and wins them, every single night. He's not an elite puck mover or elite offensive threat, but he's not a giveaway machine and he's not a riverboat gambler either.

And then there's the fact that Mo was our best player the last two playoff runs. On the nights where we were dead fish, he was the one who looked like he gave a damn. 12 points in 11 games last year (4g, 7a at ES), 6p in 7g the year before. 24 minutes a night, 22.5 minutes a night. Guy was literally +11 last year and +3 in the Florida series.

He's not coasting on reputation, the knives are just out because he was well below his own standard this year. If there is a single player on the team who has earned a little bit of rope, it's Morgan Rielly. We need players who can complement him and fill in for his strengths, but the notion that the juice isn't worth the squeeze is preposterous.

This is simply not how championship defenses are organized. You don’t paper over your number one’s flaws and hope the juice is worth the squeeze at some point.

ES, ice tilting play or however you want to characterize it is also over stated here. You don’t think the ice is tilted because we have a Big 4 group of forwards that we pay half the cap to tilt the damn ice? Also what good is 20 minutes of ES play when a PP is rendered useless in the playoffs by terrible PPQB work? What good is tilting the ice when Rielly’s coverage blew the series in Game 7 OT? You’re talking about big aggregate numbers and I’m talking about a guy who malfunctioned when it mattered.

 

[Stephen]

It really does pile onto the fact that this team is truly nowhere even close to contending for anything. If your best D has all those weaknesses and you fixing the D is going to drive the one positive part of his game down (his offense) then at what point do you realize it's just counterproductive and it's best just to move on from the player.

The real problem with being the perceived best player in the playoffs for the Leafs is that that's not saying much at all, our players are kind of notorious for turning up like crap in the postseason, you don't need to do much to stand out. This year kind of went against that narrative too, we hand good standouts in Lyubhskin, McCabe and Benoit, and Rielly all of a sudden didn't stand out so much.

With Edmonton, Florida, Dallas and New York, you can clearly identify the defensive strength at the top of their blueline corps. Heiskanen is just a Norris caliber franchise defenseman, Forsling is doing some miracle work and by committee with Montour. Ekholm is doing his best Hedman impression out there partnered with Bouchard’s historic offense. New York has Trouba and Fox.

What do we need, a guy who can replace Rielly offensively and on special teams while protecting him defensively? That sounds like an entirely new top pair.

 

[Kurtz]

Schenn and Lyubushkin aren’t exactly marginal NHL defensemen. It just comes from some misguided prejudice against big,
physical types that don’t play an offensive or skilled role that some people over value. They fill specific roles.

Now, to the crux of the problem. Schenn and Lyubushkin have played in 4 separate playoff rounds with Rielly over the past few seasons. Schenn in 2 series in 2023 and Lyubushkin spread out in 2 tours of duty. What did we exactly win with Rielly in his prime playing beside two accessory stay at home defensemen? One playoff round. What more do we need to surround Rielly with to win 2 rounds? Get past the conference finals? Win a Stanley Cup?

Suddenly you realize winning a cup with Rielly as a 1D will never work unless you put him behind a true number one and maybe a number 2. But we don’t need to pay Rielly for what he does in a 3 slot.

Schenn was regularly a healthy scratch during TB's playoff runs and spent years making league min. It's not misguided prejudice, it's just the reality. Regardless, your point was that Morgan hasn't looked good with anyone since Hainsey, which is not true.

I'm baffled by your expectations from a $7.5m dman. This year aside, he's been great for us in the playoffs, yet inexplicably you seem to be putting our inability to advance entirely on his shoulders.

No one would ever claim that he's a good #1, but he's not paid to be one. It is not his fault that this team hasn't had a true #1 since arguably our brief flirtation with Brian Leech.


This whole line of argumentation reminds me of when folks had the knives out for Kessel because he couldn't lead us as the #1 player on the team.

 

[Stephen]

Schenn was regularly a healthy scratch during TB's playoff runs and spent years making league min. It's not misguided prejudice, it's just the reality. Regardless, your point was that Morgan hasn't looked good with anyone since Hainsey, which is not true.

I'm baffled by your expectations from a $7.5m dman. This year aside, he's been great for us in the playoffs, yet inexplicably you seem to be putting our inability to advance entirely on his shoulders.

No one would ever claim that he's a good #1, but he's not paid to be one. It is not his fault that this team hasn't had a true #1 since arguably our brief flirtation with Brian Leech.


This whole line of argumentation reminds me of when folks had the knives out for Kessel because he couldn't lead us as the #1 player on the team.

I don’t expect anything from this $7.5 million defenseman. I’m telling you why he needs to be deleted from the equation so a different blueline with a new top pairing can be constructed. Just like Kessel was deleted so a new program could be built up. I’m not willing to work with or around Morgan Rielly as a Leaf moving forward. This isn’t constructive criticism time, it’s grounds for dismissal time.

BTW. Schenn didn’t make it onto the Lightning roster on a nightly basis because Tampa was a mini dynasty with a stacked blueline. If that guy is on our top pair that might give some hints as to how much building a first round and out team needs to do on D to actually win a cup.

 

[LeafGrief]

This is simply not how championship defenses are organized. You don’t paper over your number one’s flaws and hope the juice is worth the squeeze at some point.

ES, ice tilting play or however you want to characterize it is also over stated here. You don’t think the ice is tilted because we have a Big 4 group of forwards that we pay half the cap to tilt the damn ice? Also what good is 20 minutes of ES play when a PP is rendered useless in the playoffs by terrible PPQB work? What good is tilting the ice when Rielly’s coverage blew the series in Game 7 OT? You’re talking about big aggregate numbers and I’m talking about a guy who malfunctioned when it mattered.

Having watched our big 4 in the playoffs the last eight years, they don't actually do much of that ice tilting. Marner MIA, Tavares too slow to be relevant, Matthews and Nylander missing half this series. Do Hedman, Heiskanen, and Paul Coffey not get credit because they had elite forwards in front of them too? Our other D don't put up points. Our other D get smoked in the advanced stats, and have more giveaways relative to ice time. I agree that Rielly being our #1 is an indictment of our D, but that's not an indictment of him.

20 minutes of good ES play is worth 20 minutes of good ES work. You can get Shayne Gostisbehere to QB a PP and shelter on the third pair for cheap, that's not a reason to move on from the 20 minute muncher.

Rielly was puck watching on the OT goal. No defence for him there, that's his mistake and he has to live with it. But I also believe that over 10 years of him playing for the Leafs he's been the guy who steps up when it matters, year in, year out. He blew this one, but I will repeat that he is the one player on the entire roster who deserves some rope. If he sucks next year, I'll change my tune. But one series is not the reason to run this guy out of town.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

He just got 58 points in 72 games this year.

Not interested in points from a D.

I want D.

 

[Stephen]

Having watched our big 4 in the playoffs the last eight years, they don't actually do much of that ice tilting. Marner MIA, Tavares too slow to be relevant, Matthews and Nylander missing half this series. Do Hedman, Heiskanen, and Paul Coffey not get credit because they had elite forwards in front of them too? Our other D don't put up points. Our other D get smoked in the advanced stats, and have more giveaways relative to ice time. I agree that Rielly being our #1 is an indictment of our D, but that's not an indictment of him.

20 minutes of good ES play is worth 20 minutes of good ES work. You can get Shayne Gostisbehere to QB a PP and shelter on the third pair for cheap, that's not a reason to move on from the 20 minute muncher.

Rielly was puck watching on the OT goal. No defence for him there, that's his mistake and he has to live with it. But I also believe that over 10 years of him playing for the Leafs he's been the guy who steps up when it matters, year in, year out. He blew this one, but I will repeat that he is the one player on the entire roster who deserves some rope. If he sucks next year, I'll change my tune. But one series is not the reason to run this guy out of town.

Ask yourself this though. Morgan Rielly is 30 years old. It didn’t work up to this point with him in his prime. If you believe in Mo, how many more years of this can you count on to build around? How much stuff do we need to put around and ahead of him to be a winner? In the last 2-3 years we’ve also seen massive sudden decline from Muzzin and Brodie. Why continue to build with Rielly?

 

[Kurtz]

I don’t expect anything from this $7.5 million defenseman. I’m telling you why he needs to be deleted from the equation so a different blueline with a new top pairing can be constructed. Just like Kessel was deleted so a new program could be built up. I’m not willing to work with or around Morgan Rielly as a Leaf moving forward. This isn’t constructive criticism time, it’s grounds for dismissal time.

A stud #1 dman is not going to suddenly materialize on this team by hitting the delete button on Morgan. If you dump him, you have more money to maybe get a Pesce or Skjei or Montour at best.

 

[mclaren55]

Not interested in points from a D.

I want D.

So why care if he can't produce on the PP?

 

[Stephen]

A stud #1 dman is not going to suddenly materialize on this team by hitting the delete button on Morgan. If you dump him, you have more money to maybe get a Pesce or Skjei or Montour at best.

Or we get a couple of them and build a different and deeper blueline.

And when you say “Montour at best” that guy is coming off a Stanley Cup finals and knocking on the door for a second finals appearance. That’s pretty good.

 

[Kurtz]

Or we get a couple of them and build a different and deeper blueline.

And when you say “Montour at best” that guy is coming off a Stanley Cup finals and knocking on the door for a second finals appearance. That’s pretty good.

Now you're spinning your wheels. Just a minute ago you were worried about Morgan declining because he's hit 30. But all 3 of those guys are same age or older, and yet you're eager to sign them to longer UFA deals?

 

[LeafEgo]

For however it looks, at a macro level Rielly generates points and o-zone possession time with speed against top competition for almost half the game. Replacing that will be a problem, especially against teams outside the Atlantic.

His transition game can look disorganized but that's largely because the rest of the team isn't transitioning well. Move the puck north, keep up, forecheck like the dickens, and Rielly will get you your o-zone minutes and support production in a high momentum playoff game.

If we're constructing a playoff roster starting with Rielly (to go) is working from the wrong end of the list.

 

[LeafGrief]

Ask yourself this though. Morgan Rielly is 30 years old. It didn’t work up to this point with him in his prime. If you believe in Mo, how many more years of this can you count on to build around? How much stuff do we need to put around and ahead of him to be a winner? In the last 2-3 years we’ve also seen massive sudden decline from Muzzin and Brodie. Why continue to build with Rielly?

If the goal is to add a #1 and push Mo down to #2 or #3 I don't think that's "building around" him. I think that's keeping a useful player while we build the D-core that we really want. I believe that we need a matchup defender (Muzzin replacement, #1) and a PP QB (preferably #3-4 quality) to give us that winning D-core. Our teambuilding philosophy has been to put 40m into four forwards who ultimately don't score, all while neglecting goaltending and defence. A halfway reliable goalie, some dudes who do score for less than 40m, and a bit more money on the blueline are fairly reasonable asks for what Rielly needs to be part of a championship team. We keep losing in the playoffs because we can't score, not because Rielly is a leaky #1. The Bruins scored 3 goals in regulation in games 5-7, pointing the finger at the figurehead of our blueline just isn't convincing.

Not going to buy the argument that 30 year olds are going to suddenly fall apart. Players age differently. Maybe he will, but he might also have another 3-4 playoff PPG runs in him, the only thing you can really do there is look at the trends. I defended Brodie last year as deserving more rope and then this year it was clear it was over. Same with Rielly, this is a player who is valuable enough (and at 30, young enough) that you don't just cut bait after one bad year. One more year at absolute minimum, more depending on how effective he is every year.

Your point that there should be no sacred cows is well taken. Rielly is not untouchable by any means, but he is a valuable piece who should not be on the purge list.

 

[keonsbitterness]

Blaming Rielly is not seeing the forest for the trees. This team has been mediocre to poor at drafting and developing D for decades, which is why we've had to rely so much on trades and free agency.