Morgan Rielly is staying in Toronto, and Maple Leafs GM John Chayka just explained exactly why nobody could pry him loose this summer.
Rielly's name spent the summer swirling in trade rumors, with his camp reportedly offering a short list of Western Conference teams as an escape hatch.
None of it materialized. Heading into training camp, he's still wearing blue and white, and Chayka finally addressed why nothing ever got close.
"At no point did we ever have what I would characterize as a serious trade opportunity with Morgan Rielly," Chayka said.
Rielly posted 36 points in 78 games last season, nowhere near his peak production, and finished with a -18 rating on a leaky Toronto blue line.
The Maple Leafs stumbled to a 32-36-14 finish last season, a brutal slide that included a seven-game losing streak to close things out.
New head coach Jim Hiller, hired in June, inherits a defense still built around Rielly's ability to move pucks north out of the zone.
Rielly's $7.5 million cap hit gets easier to carry
That $7.5 million cap hit isn't sinking Toronto's cap sheet this season. The cap keeps rising, and the number looks far more manageable than it did two years ago.
Would another team have paid a premium for a 32-year-old, minus-18 defenseman coming off a down year? Around the league, the answer was clearly no.
Dealing him away for futures or cap filler would have been a bad process, plain and simple. Chayka clearly agrees, even after a summer of fan speculation.
Trading Rielly at a discount would have been like selling a used car for scrap because the paint faded. It still runs, and it still has value on a middling defense corps.
Chayka pointed to Rielly's ability to "skate, move the puck and create offense" as the real reason Toronto never entertained lowball offers.
Chayka downplayed any tension from the process itself. "We're in a good spot, and he's ready to go for camp," the GM said.
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Rielly reports to camp as Toronto's longest-tenured player, but the quiet trade summer doesn't guarantee radio silence again next July.
Should the Maple Leafs have traded Morgan Rielly this summer?
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