The Toronto Maple Leafs have locked up one of their leaders for a long time, announcing an eight-year extension for Morgan Rielly. The defenseman was in the final year of his current deal and will now be under contract through 2029-30. The deal carries an average annual value of $7.5MM, a raise on the $5MM cap hit he currently carries. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic clarifies the trade protection in the deal, explaining that there is a no-movement clause for the entire extension, which also is extended through the rest of this season. An NMC does not actually necessarily include a no-trade clause, however, and in this case, Rielly has received (in addition to the NMC which prevents the player from being placed on waivers) a full no-trade in the first six years and a 10-team no-trade in the final two. CapFriendly reports the full breakdown:
- 2022-23: $4.0MM salary + $4.0MM signing bonus
- 2023-24: $5.0MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2024-25: $10.0MM salary
- 2025-26: $8.0MM salary
- 2026-27: $6.0MM salary
- 2027-28: $6.0MM salary
- 2028-29: $6.0MM salary
- 2029-30: $6.0MM salary
Rielly, 27, appears to have taken a discount to stay with the Maple Leafs, at least in terms of annual salary compared to some of the contracts that have been handed out in recent months. Since entering the league in 2013-14, Rielly rank 19th among defensemen in scoring with 309 points in 580 games and finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting in 2018-19. That year he posted 20 goals and 72 points, numbers that do seem to be a bit of an outlier given he has not cracked ten goals in any other season.
In fact, while Rielly’s offensive numbers have been consistent and his durability has been a huge positive, his true upside doesn’t appear to be quite as high as some believed in the past. Last season, for instance, Rielly finished the year with just eight more points than teammate Jake Muzzin, despite seeing drastically easier deployment and spending most of the year on the first powerplay unit.
Even with those questions around his potential upside, there’s little doubt that Rielly could have secured a higher AAV on the open market, had he decided to test free agency next summer. That would have come with offers of only seven years in length though, making it easy to see why he would want to ink the eight-year pact that could very well be a higher total than he could have secured in free agency. He also is now able to stay with the team he’s played with his whole career, and the one that he wears an “A” for as alternate captain.
Still, even at a relative cap hit discount, this is an extremely risky move for the Maple Leafs. The team is already dealing with huge cap hits for three forwards and are now adding $2.5MM per season to a defenseman that hasn’t been able to get them over the first-round hump to this point. Rielly is a core member of the team, but he’ll also turn 28 before this extension even kicks in and now eats up even more of their precious cap space.
It’s hard to argue that this contract gets the Maple Leafs any closer to winning a Stanley Cup, even if it does look like a reasonable amount for a player of Rielly’s skill level.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Seems like a ton for an above average player. As a Bruins fan I’m happy because Morgan Rielly almost without fail finds a way of coughing up the puck in the most inopportune times when playing the B’s.
That’s called observer bias
So you like this deal? It can’t just be observers bias when I can’t find a single person who thinks he deserves this contract. I mean maybe he’s just garbage against the Bruins but I doubt his inopportune cough ups are isolated to one team.
it’s not just the bruins. he’s being paid as a top 10 NHL defenseman which he is not. I’m don’t even think he’s even the best defenceman on Toronto.
well guess this means Mitch Mariner is available. no way can they add 7.5 million to next year’s team cap and not lose one of the big 4 (which apparently is now 5)
Obviously you’re not up to your moniker MoneyBallJustWorks….they only added $2.5M to next year’s cap number.
sorry how’s that? $0 – 7500000 is now $2500000?
Government economic model. Just keep adding 5 trillion to the debt and say it’s paid for.
I honestly don’t like Mo that much. If it wasn’t for Brodie being a stud Rielly would be exposed for the very average defender he is. Think Sandin has more offensive upside and will replace him on top PP unit by end of season. Was hoping that he would be traded this year along with anybody else not named Jack or Willy
he has Brodie and night in and night out he is still exposed. the man thinks he is a winger. he wants to be a winger. hell maybe move Marner and replace him with Rielly up front.
Leafs don’t learn do they? These long and heavy contracts are gonna hurt real bad in 4-5 years
How so? In 4-5 years Matthews, Marner, and Nylanders contracts will be done.
this contract will hurt next year as there is almost no way to keep the four plus him plus find a backup or starter.
I’ve stopped trying to predict and say “someone has to go!” That has been said since the Matthews/Marner contracts were signed, people saying they can’t afford to keep them and sign Tavares. With every signing, fans say that one of them has to go, yet none of them have gone. When will fans just admit they don’t know better than Dubas and Pridham (who literally wrote the CBA)?
“When will fans just admit they don’t know better than Dubas and Pridham?”
Maybe when they win something.
Can blame the players for their lack of success. Management has put forth a strong, young team that, on paper, is elite. When it comes to managing the cap, fans keep saying how someone in the top 4 needs to go, yet all that had to go were bottom 6 depth forwards.
moving one to be cap compliant and moving one to find success are two different things.
Time to move one of the big 4 offensive salary “studs”.
Over $76M in salary next year with 5 RFA’s to sign and 4 UFA’s to replace or sign.
Gonna need more than magic here, and some hard decisions need to be made!
Maybe trade Marner for a young second line scoring winger and a 1st and maybe more (depends on weather or not salary is retained, if not than the return will not be much more.
Marner is definitely on the block now. it’s the only way this makes sense other than the leafs figured they could get a “team friendly” deal with him then maybe find a team to take him this year before this extension kicks in
This tells me someone like Nylander has to go.
I’ve knocked Willie before but at least he plays up to the contract. Mitch likely is the one to go of the big 4
None of the core four have to go. Kessel comes off the books. Cap goes up 1 million. Only a Holl/dermott/kerfoot/Ritchie/Mikeyev type salary has to go.
Yes Morgan has defensive issues. This does not put him in the top 10 d-man salaries. Have a look at the d-men signed for 7.5-10/yr recently. He is getting more than I’d like but less than comparable salaries or what he would have received if he went UFA. Then look at the leafs d without him and tell me who they could replace him for at a reasonable cost. Look at the d-men about to be UFA next year. Ritsollienen hahaha. Klingburger – 2 yrs older and reportedly asking for 8/yr. Lindholm, sure but he will want more than 7.5/yr.
And to all the leaf fans complaining about Dubas. No GM is perfect. Go through the othe Canadian teams and tell me which GM is better than him before you go off on him (and compare the pre Dubas era to what we have now). Benning? Holland? Cheveldayof? Treleving? Dorian? Bergevin? No thanks. I’ll keep imperfect Dubas for now.
(Apologies if I misspelled any names).
So I’ll take Morgan warts and all even if his coverage around his own net drives me nuts at times.
While they are vastly overrated, he also has intangibles; he wants to be a leaf and he stands up and faces media and critics straight on. He is captain Morgan material.
You make good points, and anyone who attacks grammar or spelling simply doesn’t have any counter-points to offer. Gotta admit though, Klingburger gave me a bit of a chuckle.
You would rather keep Rielly at 7.5 a year because he’s a stand up guy with the media, but admittedly has issues in his own end? I appreciate that he wants to be a Leaf for life, but if you can’t start your highest paid defender in his own end, then it may be time to cut bait.
Also, why are those 3 overrated defencemen you listed the only potential replacements for Morgan? There will be a reasonably sized UFA defensive market next summer.
Dubas is not a good GM, committing 47 million to 5 players with no goalie plans beyond this year isn’t sustainable. It is continuing the recent cycle of selling off assets just to keep the ones you have. I’d take Holland, Chevy, Dorian and possibly Bergy over Dubas any day. Again, why are we limiting the scope of potential replacements to just the Canadian ones?
It looks to me like an overpay in terms of skill, but an underpay in terms of market value, if that makes any sense. He’s also at an age where the eight years might only be a problem for 1 or 2 years as at the end instead of half the contract.
bingo to this comment. you can get market value and still overpay for the skilkset.
The bottom pair D men, the bottom 6 forwards and the backup goalie in Toronto will have to play for $7.25/hr soon.
Roster’s a bit top heavy.