Morgan Rielly traded for a 3-time Norris winner? Here's why the blockbuster never happened

Morgan Rielly almost got shipped out of Toronto, and it took an insider report to reveal how close it actually got.

Jeff Marek dropped the news on Toronto Sports Rush, saying there was real momentum at one point between the Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks around Erik Karlsson.

Rielly, according to Marek, would have been part of the return heading to San Jose.

The defenseman posted 36 points in 78 games this season, going 11-25, but he closed the year ice cold. Just one point in his last five games, and a minus-3 in that stretch.

Retention killed it. Marek was blunt about that being the sticking point that sank the whole framework.

Karlsson never did end up in San Jose colors leaving Toronto. He's now with Pittsburgh, carrying an $11,500,000 cap hit as one of the highest paid defensemen in the league.

Rielly, meanwhile, is still a Maple Leaf, still owed $7,500,000 against the cap, and still the guy Toronto couldn't quite move even when a real deal was on the table.

Why the Leafs and Sharks couldn't make the money work

Think about it like two people trying to split a restaurant bill where neither wants to admit they ordered the extra round of drinks. That's retention in trade talks. Somebody eats the cost or the deal dies.

Toronto finished the season buried at 32-36-14, a minus-46 goal differential, dead last in the division standings at rank 28 overall. They lost seven straight to close it out.

San Jose wasn't much healthier by the raw record, 39-35-8, but they at least closed on a winning note.

Would moving Rielly out west have actually fixed anything for Toronto? Hard to say. But it tells you the front office was willing to touch a core piece just to get something moving.

New head coach Jim Hiller inherits a Leafs blue line that almost looked completely different than the one he's about to run.

This is a bad look for a franchise that keeps flirting with change and keeps ending up standing still. That's on the people writing the checks, not just the players wearing the sweaters.

Marek's report doesn't just reveal a dead trade. It reveals how thin the margin was between Rielly staying a Maple Leaf and Rielly starting over somewhere else entirely.

Karlsson landed in Pittsburgh anyway. Toronto still has the same defenseman, the same cap number, and now everyone knows how close it came to being different.