Morgan Rielly told the Toronto media he wants to stay a Maple Leaf as long as he can, then added the part most veterans leave out.
I feel fortunate to have been a Maple Leaf. I want to continue that for as long as I can.
My performance and my game have to hold up that end of the bargain. That sentence is his own.
Players with his tenure don't usually put a condition on themselves out loud. He went ahead and did it anyway.
That's a man reading the room in a market that just watched this team land 28th overall.
Toronto gave up 299 goals last season. Everybody on that blue line wears a share of a number like that.
Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe and Darren Raddysh are all in the same group. Emil Andrae and Ben Danford dressed Saturday too.
-
Morgan Rielly sends a telling message about his Maple Leafs future
Rotowire's Thomas Leary put Hiller first among every coach in the league for pressure, ahead of even Mike Babcock in Edmonton.
That's the man who decides who dresses. Rielly knows it, which probably explains why the quote sounded the way it did.
Toronto lost 4-1 at home to Montreal on Saturday. Raddysh scored the only goal and led everybody with 28:20.
McCabe and Tanev were the only two skaters in that whole lineup to finish even.
Auston Matthews played his first game since knee surgery that night and put 6 shots on net.
The Leafs sit 0-1-1 through the exhibition schedule and are still hunting a first win.
Two games Wednesday against Ottawa, one at home and one on the road. Split squad again.
Hiller spent this week telling a story about William Nylander calling him years ago when he first landed an NHL head coaching job.
He's building relationships out in the open. Rielly just made clear he isn't assuming anything from his own side of it.
Nobody handed either of them a guarantee this September, which is new for a player with his mileage in that building.
So what does earning it actually look like? A veteran promising to hold up his end works like a mortgage renewal at a higher rate. Same house, tougher terms.
Rielly said the quiet part in public and nobody argued with him. That's the part worth watching when the cuts start landing.
Should Morgan Rielly still have a top four role with the Maple Leafs?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Connor McDavid addresses whether he would intervene if Mike Babcock goes too far
