Confirmed Signing with Link: [TOR] Leafs extend Morgan Rielly (8 years, $7.5M AAV)

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Leafs are going to be in salary cap hell, they need to dump one of those high priced contracts

They need to do it at forward. Their defense isn't great, and while I wouldn't want Riely as my top guy, that contract is solid for what he brings.

 

[sansabri]

good deal. too bad the team is a cap mess

 

[The90]

If Campbell proves he's a capable #1, his salary probably will be in the $5-ish million range. Especially when you consider he's almost 30 years old and hasn't had a chance to really cash in yet, so he might view the next payday as his best chance to land the contract to set him up for life.

Guessing he’s going to be another bridge deal. 3.5-5depending on term.

 

[TS Quint]

Pretty good deal. Most Leaf fans were hoping for a number in the low to mid 7s.

After those mega deals to defenders (Nurse, Jones, Werenski, etc.), Rielly making the same as an Ekblad and less than a Trouba for 8 years is a great price. Letting Mo walk would be a fireable offense considering he's one of their best playoff performers year in year out and paces for 50-70pts depending on the year.

This 7.5m will be almost entirely covered by the 1m cap raise + Kessel's retention coming off the books (1.2m), so the Leafs can cover 95% of this deal without doing anything.

Wasn't the cap going up supposed to help with the Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares... all the signed contracts, but now it's all being used just to cover Rielly's raise? I don't know that I'm against the contract but this is some weird mental gymnastic you are using to justify it.

 

[King Woodballs]

Which one of the 4 forwards is getting tossed in the off-season? no way they can keep all 5 of these guys.

 

[Boomstick]

In this market that's an amazing deal, wow

Rielly should have been named captain

Captain Morgan?

 

[AvroArrow]

Which one of the 4 forwards is getting tossed in the off-season? no way they can keep all 5 of these guys.

Absolutely has to be Marner. JT has a NMC, he's not going anywhere. Nylander at 6.9M is a steal, not him. You can live with paying Auston Matthews 11M, he's a legit top 10 maybe top 5 player in the league. It's Mitch. He is a proven 90 point winger but notorious for disappearing in the most important moments and has looked bad to start the year. Played great last game against Chicago, but overall not great.

Nylander probably brings the best return just because of his cap, but shredding that extra 4M off Marner would be huge to fill out the roster.

That being said, knowing Dubas he'll probably can Mrazek instead and we'll have an AHL starter as our backup goalie.

 

[Headshot77]

Good value. Props to the Leafs there.

Now you trade Marner for a secondary scorer, picks, and cap space and you're set.

 

[Advanced stats]

Which one of the 4 forwards is getting tossed in the off-season? no way they can keep all 5 of these guys.

None,

Rielly is only getting a 2.5 million raise.
That money is gained through:

Kessel retention expires and 1.2 million is gained.
Kerfoot is traded and 3c is filled wih another option making 2.5 million.
It really is simple.

 

[Pure West]

Guessing he’s going to be another bridge deal. 3.5-5depending on term.

That would be incredibly foolish on his part to do a bridge deal as a 30 year old UFA in what is likely his last best chance to cash in. What would be the end game? Wait until he's 33 and hope he gets to sign an even bigger deal? Bridge deals are for RFA's who don't have the leverage, or players that can anticipate signing a bigger and better deal when the bridge deal expires.

 

[Knies iT]

Wasn't the cap going up supposed to help with the Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares... all the signed contracts, but now it's all being used just to cover Rielly's raise? I don't know that I'm against the contract but this is some weird mental gymnastic you are using to justify it.

You just don't understand it. How is a cap increase "all" of the cap savings? You're the only one doing mental gymnastics.

Marner/Matthews/Tavares/etc. are already under contract and accounted for on the cap...Rielly is being given a raise with a new contract starting next year. Quite clearly the cap increases for next year would go towards offsetting raises for next year.

If you're talking about improving the roster (aka desperately finding something to criticize), then they can upgrade Kerfoot with the cap savings from his contract @3.5m + UFA Mikheyev's 1.7m. That's 5m+ for a wing upgrade like Domi, Smith, etc. or they can go a cheaper route on forward so to also give Campbell a raise (money from Kase, Engvall, Dermott, Holl, etc.).

Bottom line is that this contract is covered without touching the roster at all. If they want to improve elsewhere, there are a number of depth pieces they can move in order to sign a bigger fish.

 

[King Woodballs]

None,

Rielly is only getting a 2.5 million raise.
That money is gained through:

Kessel retention expires and 1.2 million is gained.
Kerfoot is traded and 3c is filled wih another option making 2.5 million.
It really is simple.

Yeah ok

 

[The90]

That would be incredibly foolish on his part to do a bridge deal as a 30 year old UFA in what is likely his last best chance to cash in. What would be the end game? Wait until he's 33 and hope he gets to sign an even bigger deal? Bridge deals are for RFA's who don't have the leverage, or players that can anticipate signing a bigger and better deal when the bridge deal expires.

How much would you give him right now? I don’t think any team is giving him more than 3-4 years. 4.5 x 3 or 3.9x4

 

[Toronto makebeleifs]

Pretty fair. All things considered. Happy mo is looking at the potential of being a career leaf. Easily still the teams best offensive threat from the back end, though the last few yrs may look a little suspect for a guy that has so much of his game based around his skating ability. With that said, its time to make capitan morgan a thing. Do it.

 

[TS Quint]

You just don't understand it. How is a cap increase "all" of the cap savings? You're the only one doing mental gymnastics.

Marner/Matthews/Tavares/etc. are already under contract and accounted for on the cap...Rielly is being given a raise with a new contract starting next year. Quite clearly the cap increases for next year would go towards offsetting raises for next year.

If you're talking about improving the roster (aka desperately finding something to criticize), then they can upgrade Kerfoot with the cap savings from his contract @3.5m + UFA Mikheyev's 1.7m. That's 5m+ for a wing upgrade like Domi, Smith, etc. or they can go a cheaper route on forward so to also give Campbell a raise (money from Kase, Engvall, Dermott, Holl, etc.).

Bottom line is that this contract is covered without touching the roster at all. If they want to improve elsewhere, there are a number of depth pieces they can move in order to sign a bigger fish.

Sounds like you are happy with whatever the Leafs do. You re a good fan.

 

[canuckking1]

In terms of on ice value it’s a fair deal. Relative to the D-Market seems like a bargain.

 

[The90]

Which one of the 4 forwards is getting tossed in the off-season? no way they can keep all 5 of these guys.

Totally. This is finally the year they can’t do it! After the last 2 where they couldn’t fit it in of course

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Good deal and glad the Leafs got him locked in longterm.

 

[shortfuze]

Wasn't the cap going up supposed to help with the Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares... all the signed contracts, but now it's all being used just to cover Rielly's raise? I don't know that I'm against the contract but this is some weird mental gymnastic you are using to justify it.

When did the cap go up?

 

[AvroArrow]

None,

Rielly is only getting a 2.5 million raise.
That money is gained through:

Kessel retention expires and 1.2 million is gained.
Kerfoot is traded and 3c is filled wih another option making 2.5 million.
It really is simple.

My concern is at LW. We don't have a single legitimate top 6 LW. Bunting is decent, maybe a low end 2LW. We need someone who can play on the top line with Matthews, it's been a handicap for his line all year. Ritchie isn't good enough to be playing with him, and you're not getting a legit top 6 winger for 1m-2m. Robertson doesn't have the size. If we had a big body at RW you can throw Robertson on the left, but all our top 6 wingers will be relatively small.

 

[Evincar]

that’s a great way to rationalize having no playoff success. But this is getting off topic.

I like this signing.

That’s a really bad way to look at sports, but okay. There have been plenty of great teams that had sustained success that were awesome to watch…that never won a championship. You can be a great team and not win a championship.

having zero playoff success is a different story.

Dont worry if the Leafs somehow make the conference finals this season, the fans will make sure to let everyone know it mattered.

 

[The90]

As of right now, Reilly will have the 21st highest cap-hit among NHL D-men next season.

I thought he meant pro rated at the end of the contract.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

My concern is at LW. We don't have a single legitimate top 6 LW. Bunting is decent, maybe a low end 2LW. We need someone who can play on the top line with Matthews, it's been a handicap for his line all year. Ritchie isn't good enough to be playing with him, and you're not getting a legit top 6 winger for 1m-2m. Robertson doesn't have the size. If we had a big body at RW you can throw Robertson on the left, but all our top 6 wingers will be relatively small.

How much do you think the Leafs will be able to spend on such a player (assuming other moves are made to create cap space)?

Looking at upcoming potential LW UFAs: Gaudreau, Forsberg, Palat, Neiderreiter, Domi, R. Smith, Burakovsky, Nichushkin. Clearly a few of them will be too expensive, but would any of them be reasonable targets?

Or do you think it gets solved via trade?

 

[HockeyVirus]

The same people laughing at the Leafs not signing Hyman, are laughing at what this deal looks like in year 7 or 8. Dubas has more faith in Rielly being durable in his 30's than Hyman. We'll see who's right

 

[Sureves]

Totally. This is finally the year they can’t do it! After the last 2 where they couldn’t fit it in of course

Yes the Leafs have been very successful in recent years with their selected approach.