Toronto trades Morgan Rielly (retaining $2.5M) to Edmonton for Andrew Mangiapane and a conditional second-round pick (which becomes a first if Edmonton wins the Cup).<\/p>\n
Why the Leafs Would Move Morgan Rielly…<\/p>\n
Morgan Rielly is 30 years old, Signed at $7.5M AAV through 2030 and no longer the undisputed driver of the Leafs\u2019 blue line.. Rielly is still very good\u2026but he\u2019s no longer essential in the way he once was. And the Leafs know this and are looking at this opportunity, which might not come again….<\/p>\n
Those of you who follow me know that I am a big fan of Andrew Mangiapane. I love this kid\u2019s game\u2026but yes, his consistency has been a real issue. He\u2019s a strange player in that sometimes the less he plays, the more he scores\u2026But what he brings to Toronto is something they desperately need\u2026because right now, Knies is really the only forward consistently playing this way\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 Speed, Penalty killing, Playoff-style pressure, Secondary scoring<\/p>\n
Mangiapane checks every one of those boxes\u2026And he\u2019s not the first player who checks all those boxes yet doesn\u2019t quite fit into how Edmonton wants to play offensively\u2026 GM Brad Treliving had Andrew in Calgary and often sang his praises\u2026even to the Team Canada people, who then watched Mangiapane come over after Calgary was eliminated and essentially become a driving force in Canada winning the World Championships\u2026<\/p>\n
Why the Oilers Would Love Morgan Rielly<\/p>\n
Beyond key saves at key times, one of Edmonton\u2019s biggest playoff weakness during the McDavid era has been they have a pure offensive defenseman in Bouchard\u2026They have a pure defensive defenseman in Ekholm\u2026But they don\u2019t have an elite player who can do both….that glue guy\u2026the defenseman who can make a solid defensive play and then transition the puck cleanly up ice…Florida showed last year that if you sit in the neutral zone against Edmonton, you can largely take away their transition game. The Oilers still look for stretch passes that just aren\u2019t there\u2026and that leads to turnovers\u2026<\/p>\n
Rielly is pretty much the perfect fit for the Oilers right now\u2026<\/p>\n
Rielly breaks a lot of rules in a good way…besides the “I” before “e” except after “c” controversy…And yes, he does have a no-movement clause\u2026but it\u2019s hard to imagine he wouldn\u2019t want to go to Edmonton and take a legitimate run at a Stanley Cup\u2026<\/p>\n
Again, I can\u2019t tell the future\u2026at least not usually\u2026so I\u2019m really just reporting on a rumor here. What makes this kind of rumor interesting is where it psychologicallycomes from\u2026it really takes two teams that are both in high pressure and desperate situations to do something like this..<\/p>\n
It cannot be overstated how much Connor McDavid\u2019s decision to sign a short-term deal has put the Oilers into overdrive\u2026<\/p>\n
There is no tomorrow for Edmonton… put all your chips in now\u2026or risk losing everything later\u2026<\/p>\n
I still believe Toronto makes the playoffs… and is dangerous<\/p>\n
The Leafs aren\u2019t out of it either, but the loss of Marner has clearly thrown off their balance. Bringing Mangiapane into the top six could help rebalance things a bit\u2026 None of this matters, of course, unless Matthews continues to look like the player he\u2019s been recently. Morgan Rielly has often been Toronto\u2019s best player\u2026but at his age, and at that salary, this might be the best\u2014and possibly last\u2014chance they have to move him for something truly significant\u2026<\/p>\n
I look forward to your thoughts in the comments…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto trades Morgan Rielly (retaining $2.5M) to Edmonton for Andrew Mangiapane and a conditional second-round pick (which becomes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[1824,198,146,5300,8870,58,5,885,4,107,24,26126,11248],"class_list":{"0":"post-388882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-andrew-mangiapane","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-eklund","13":"tag-featured","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-morgan-rielly","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-nhl-rumors","18":"tag-oilers","19":"tag-oilers-trade-rumors","20":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115832810683476991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}