Morgan Rielly's future with the Toronto Maple Leafs took a real turn Monday morning, and it's not the kind of story that fades quietly.
According to NHL Rumour Report, the Maple Leafs already have a general sense of which teams Rielly would waive his no-move clause for.
Rielly reportedly would like landing in the Western Conference, but he's open to options in the East too.
That's not a throwaway detail. A no-move clause gives Rielly total control here, and Toronto needs him to name names before anything can move.
Fourth Period: Re Morgan Rielly: The Leafs have a general sense of which teams he would waive his NMC for, and while Rielly wouldn't mind going to the Western Conference, he is open to options in the East.
Rielly closed the season with 36 points on 11 goals and 25 assists across 78 games, but he finished at minus-18.
His last ten games told a rougher story too, just three points and a minus-1 stretch that did nothing to boost his trade value.
Toronto stumbled to the finish line, dropping seven straight and sitting at 32-36-14 with a minus-46 goal differential, 28th overall.
Jim Hiller inherits a mess before he's even coached a game
Jim Hiller was hired as Toronto's head coach on June 17, which means he's walking into a roster that might already be shedding one of its longest-tenured pieces.
Here's the tension nobody's saying out loud. You don't usually hand a new coach a locker room in the middle of an exodus and call it a plan.
The last five games were even worse for Rielly, just one point and a minus-3 rating, the kind of stretch that makes both sides start thinking about an exit.
This is worth reading straight from the source.
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Rielly still carries a $7.5 million cap hit, and any team absorbing that number is doing it with eyes open given where his production landed this year.
The Leafs waived through a brutal stretch run and now they're staring at a roster teardown that starts with their own captain-in-waiting deciding where he wants to go.
Nobody's forcing Rielly out the door. But when a player starts handing over a list of preferred destinations, the door tends to find its own way open eventually.
Should the Maple Leafs trade Morgan Rielly this summer?
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