Player Discussion Morgan Rielly

[Stephen]

Morgan played the 4 most minutes among Leaf defenders in the Stars game. I've been saying for awhile, slotting this guy as our #1 made no sense to me. Is he our 4th best defender no, but he is not a #1 either. Tanev, McCabe and OEL all had more minutes

Rielly is probably a number 3 defenseman by default. If he was properly slotted, you likely don't need to run him out there with your true number one on the top pair, so he could be the stronger partner on your number two unit.

 

[arso40]

Rielly is probably a number 3 defenseman by default. If he was properly slotted, you likely don't need to run him out there with your true number one on the top pair, so he could be the stronger partner on your number two unit.

Good character guy but expensive as hell as a number 3 who’s game is speed and looks slower

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

We need top add another Tanev caliber RD if we're going to have Rielly in the top 4, while keeping Tanev with McCabe.

Tanev really helps cover for Morgan but with McCabe they're Ean elite pair defensively. Rielly with OEL is too unreliable a pair. So we either put Tanev back with Rielly and separate our best pairing, or find another Tanev.

They need a few more RD.

Rielly ---------
McCabe Tanev
OEL ---------

Agreed. But the top pair is Tanev-McCabe. Not sure who we can get until the offseason, but Rielly with Amy of our other D doesn't work.

 

[Martin Skoula]

We need top add another Tanev caliber RD if we're going to have Rielly in the top 4, while keeping Tanev with McCabe.

Tanev really helps cover for Morgan but with McCabe they're Ean elite pair defensively. Rielly with OEL is too unreliable a pair. So we either put Tanev back with Rielly and separate our best pairing, or find another Tanev.


Agreed. But the top pair is Tanev-McCabe. Not sure who we can get until the offseason, but Rielly with Amy of our other D doesn't work.

The problem with Rielly-Tanev or any pick of defensive D partner is that Rielly’s problem isn’t even D zone coverage (not that it’s good) but how often he voluntarily does something to lose the o-zone. If he wasn’t a shinpad sniper and made better decisions offensively he’d have to play a fraction of the defense he currently does. That and he’s not really dangerous offensively until the other team forgets he exists and he sneaks into the circles uncovered, the other team can focus their attention on the forwards and he can’t do much to take advantage of it without giving up position.

Watching the new generation OFDs and Rielly is night and day, you can’t have your only OFD only be effective in the neutral zone and at the circles. The 5F PP is the right call imo, id rather have Nylander and Marner distributing and I’d probably rather have them on the backcheck.

 

[Skullz]

He has been slow to start. Roy would have been awesome in the offseason. A different partner would be a good addition.

 

[arso40]

He has been slow to start. Roy would have been awesome in the offseason. A different partner would be a good addition.

Oels been great but if Roy would have signed here that was a bad signing…..he’s playing better than Rielly but roy would stabilize that pair and we’ve been looking at Roy for a couple years now