{"id":576460,"date":"2026-05-16T15:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/576460\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:27:13","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-should-trade-morgan-rielly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/576460\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Morgan Rielly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in an offseason of change. So far, the team has added John Chayka as the new general manager and Mats Sundin as a Senior Advisor (VP of Hockey Operations). Head coach Craig Berube is no longer with the team. The search for his replacement<\/a> has begun.<\/p>\n

There is no telling who the new coach will be or what kind of system they will implement. One thing is for certain: the Maple Leafs need to become younger and faster. If you\u2019ve been watching the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, you\u2019ve seen that each game looks like a track meet. The pace of the game continues to speed up.<\/p>\n

The future is not all doom and gloom for Toronto. Players like Easton Cowan<\/a>, Matthew Knies<\/a>, and prospect Ben Danford<\/a> are bright spots to keep an eye on. However, the Maple Leafs need to add more speed if they want any chance of rebounding from a terrible 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Winning the NHL draft lottery helps. Toronto has the chance to add Gavin McKenna<\/a> to its lineup for next season. He is one step in the right direction for the Maple Leafs new management group. However, Chayka will be tasked with trying to remove some of the team\u2019s older players. One of whom is defenseman Morgan Rielly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs Need to Trade Morgan Rielly<\/p>\n

Trading the 32-year-old defenseman will not be easy. Rielly has a salary cap hit of $7.5 million with four years left on his deal. He also has a full no-movement clause for the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

Chayka is expected to meet with Rielly sometime during the summer. It\u2019s unknown if he\u2019ll ask Rielly to waive his NMC or not. Chayka wouldn\u2019t be doing his job if he didn\u2019t at least ask, so we\u2019ll see where things go.<\/p>\n

One has to assume that if Rielly is going to waive his NMC, he likely does so if the team is his hometown team, the Vancouver Canucks, or a team that is closer to Vancouver than Toronto. Now, if the Maple Leafs want to maximize the return they get for Rielly, they might have to retain at least 25% of his salary, if not more. Teams can retain up to 50% of a player\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs would love to get Rielly\u2019s entire $7.5 million off their books, but that is highly unlikely. Trading Rielly is more about a salary dump than a straight-up trade. Toronto will try to ask for a late first-round pick or an early second-round pick for Rielly. Some salary retention will likely be needed, and the deal is easier if it\u2019s with a team that has multiple picks in the first two rounds of the draft.<\/p>\n

Top Three Teams for Rielly Trade<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks<\/p>\n

It is very unlikely that the Canucks trade the 3rd overall pick to the Maple Leafs. However, they do own the Minnesota Wild\u2019s first-round pick, which is currently the 24th overall. Vancouver also holds the 33rd overall pick, which is the first selection of the second round.<\/p>\n

The Canucks are Rielly\u2019s hometown team, and they have the cap space to add his full $7.5 million. However, they are in a rebuild, and it\u2019s unclear if he would fit into their plans.<\/p>\n

Seattle Kraken<\/p>\n

The Kraken are not going to give up the 7th overall pick for Rielly. However, they also hold the Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s first-round pick, which is currently 26th overall. If that\u2019s still too high for them, they could offer the 38th overall pick.<\/p>\n

Like Vancouver, Seattle has the cap space to make a trade for Rielly happen. Playing in Seattle would put the Maple Leafs defenseman closer to home and allow his family more opportunities to watch his games. The Kraken would love to get back to being a competitive team, so Rielly might fit into their plans more than with Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Calgary Flames<\/p>\n

The Flames hold the 6th overall pick and the Vegas Golden Knights\u2019 first-round pick. At the moment, that pick from Vegas is 28th overall. They also hold four picks in the second round, 35th, 36th, 51st, and 55th overall. The Maple Leafs could try asking for the 35th and 55th overall picks instead of the Vegas first-round pick.<\/p>\n

Calgary is also able to take on Rielly\u2019s entire $7.5 million if needed. However, Toronto might be able to nab a better return if they retain 25% ($1.875 million) of cap space. Out of these three teams, Calgary is the only one with six picks in the first two rounds. Toronto would be smart to try and get a hold of two of those picks.<\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from Inside The Rink<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs are in an offseason of change. So far, the team has added John Chayka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5106],"tags":[4111,8450,766,5,20,5172,797,885,4,66,31,40469,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-576460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-ben-danford","9":"tag-easton-cowan","10":"tag-gavin-mckenna","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-maple-leafs","13":"tag-mapleleafs","14":"tag-matthew-knies","15":"tag-morgan-rielly","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-toronto","18":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","19":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-trade-rumours","20":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116584962107453766","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576460","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=576460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}