Morgan Rielly's future with the Toronto Maple Leafs got murkier on Tuesday morning.
NHL insider Frank Corrado said on Sportsnet's JayOnSC that he doesn't expect Rielly to be wearing blue and white when the puck drops on the new season.
Trade speculation like this doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It's more like smoke rising over a building.
You don't always see the fire right away, but you know something's burning.
Rielly carries a cap hit of $7,500,000, and last season he closed out with 36 points in 78 games, including 11 goals and two game-winning goals.
The finish wasn't pretty. Over his last 10 games, Rielly put up just three points.
Across his final five, he managed one point, with a minus-3 rating in that stretch.
That drop lined up with a Maple Leafs season that came apart at the seams. Toronto finished 32-36-14, good for 78 points and 28th overall in the league.
The Maple Leafs also bled goals against, posting a minus-46 differential, and they staggered to the finish line on a seven-game losing streak.
New coach Jim Hiller inherits a fractured Leafs blue line
Enter Jim Hiller. Toronto hired him as head coach on June 17, and he wasn't behind the bench for any of the losing that got the previous staff fired.
A new coach with no history with Rielly changes the math. Does loyalty carry over when the man signing off on the lineup card wasn't there for the years that built it?
Moving a defenseman with this much history in Toronto isn't a call you make lightly.
But if Hiller and the front office see a blue line that needs reshaping, breaking up something familiar makes hockey sense, even if it stings walking into camp.
Rielly has been a fixture on that back end for years, logging power play minutes and soaking up tough matchups on a roster that kept sliding backward.
Losing him would mean losing experience the Leafs don't have an easy replacement for.
Corrado didn't offer specifics on where Rielly might land or when a move could come.
He simply said he doesn't expect the veteran defenseman in Toronto colors when camp business turns into regular season hockey.
That leaves plenty unanswered heading into an offseason that already feels unsettled on Bay Street.
If Rielly is on his way out, the Maple Leafs still have to figure out who fills the void he leaves behind.
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Will the Maple Leafs trade Morgan Rielly this offseason?
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