rielly is more of a 3rd than top 2, he had 1 great year and this year it showed. He's a good 3rd but hitting the top 2 pairing is incredibly high standard which he hasnt acclaimed.

On behalf of the attack from leaf fans you're about to get, RIP <3

Fair. And you are probably right. I just put it down in pairings. And I think he is better than just a top 4 D. But do you agree with the rest?

Its a lot of top line forward talent, especially given the salaries, that makes it difficult to "fill out" the entire team.

The team can move mid level salaries like kerfoot, kapanen, johnsson but that doesn't create tons of space to address team depth and defense.

The Leafs really lack physicality and team defense, physicality can be cheap to add, but team defense means less 5 goal outbursts and less production.

The prospect pool isn't as good as most want to believe, but you don't nevcesssarily have to plug in a ceci, muzzin, type vet to address it.

I think teams will deal for those "mid level" salaries, but with the cap issues the Leafs have they will need a cheaper salary back in return or a temporary fix. Think a Kapanen for Phillipe Myers kind of deal. Its definitely the easiest deals, but it still results in a very lop sided team.

Overall I just think the team is top heavy, not just in salaries but at forward and in team philosophy, which results in poor team defense, with little chance it gets rectified next year.

The rest looks solid, with nylanders emergence this year he's back to being a top player. Toronto's 3 issues are right now they need a 2nd pair right hand defenceman, a backup goalie that can play 25-30 games a season so Freddie doesnt get worn down, and one of their forwards Nylander, Mathews, Marner, or Tavares needs to go but I'm leaning between marner and mathews because of contracts. Ideally it would be tavares but after giving him captaincy and signing him as a fa it would destroy Toronto's rep if they pulled that.

5th in Norris voting less than a year ago. Yeah he's definitely only a 2nd pair guy. This site is completely out of hand.

If morgan rielly isnt a top pairing defenseman, there are only about 10 of them in the league.

And my anti leafs credentials are strong

This is the perfect time for the Why are you booing me I'm right gif

I think Campbell can handle that amount of games the next two seasons. And I am very high on Woll for the mid term future.

I think there is not even a question who you would trade when it comes to Matthews and Marner. Matthews is by far the better player, has more position value, is younger and has the better contract. Also, he is the best equal strenght goal scorer in the league. This might be the most dificult thing to do in the leauge.

What to you mean by the the prospect pool?

I think Robertson is a legit mid 6 prosepct. Bracco could probably play top 9 in a weaker team. And Korshkov could play in the 4th line next year. Abramov is kind of hard to say.

On the backend I don't see others than Sandin and Lilijegren

In goal, I actually like Woll a lot

So I've said this before, the Leafs are halfway through the rebuild not complete. There is no reason to move one of the big four for a defenseman. Everyone keeps talking about how they have too to balance out the team which is just crap. They have Johnsson, Kerfoot, Kapenen who are all very very movable and would all get the Leafs a nice package of picks and free up over 9 million remove Ceci 4.5 next year and they have 13.5 million. There is no chance they spend more than 6 on a top 4 RHD as recent history shows spending mass amounts of cap on defenseman gets you nowhere.
There is no reason why the Leafs couldn't move one of those middle 6 (Kapenen) for a late first add that late first to Lilly and bring in a legit Top 4 RHD with term at under 6million. The Leafs have built their forward group and will now concentrate on the defense

But again, I think that having just depth prospects doesn't help, and that's a lot of hope and should be in prospects. In a cap sense alone, the team right now is almost half/half NHL minimum salaries. The Leafs have one of the thinnest, weakest prospect pools in the league, unfortunately, but ultimately you'd rather have a stud on offense and defense coming up, and I don't think the leafs have that.

Its more about team mix, with almost half the cap invested in four top 4 forwards, the team will have to continue plugging in NHL minimum salaries, without a real stud coming in. The team defense isn't good and I know they'll be freed up of monies when Ceci and/or Muzzin leave, but is that enough to address the defense or just bring in another 4mil vet, who may or may not improve the team.

Sorry but IMO, theres a reason previous Cup winners, have spread out their largest salaries and talent on all sides (Crosby/Malkin/Letang/Fleury or Kane/Toews/Keith/Seabrook/Crawford). I just don't see that on the Leafs.

And to me its not just the lop sided forward salaries and talent, its the philosophy. The team defense is just lacking.

There are 31 teams so there are 62 top 2 D in the league. Is Rielly in the top 62? If so then he is a top 2 D.

He's consistently identified as a potential Team Canada Rep, which normally is reserved for top dman. at worst a "2nd" but you honestly think he is in the 63-93 range of D in the league?

Ideas for the Maple Leafs:

-Don't turtle in the third period.
-Shoot the puck.

Fixed the team.

Since Reilly is out for four more weeks, and Ceci maybe for the season, just to have those guys in the lineup is pretty meaningless. Even when healthy using numbers on pairings on the Leafs is pretty meaningless. For instance Reilly gets more minutes on PP, but isn't used much of the PK. So that make him a # 1 Dman? Barrie is avoided on the PK. Ceci and. Holl were used as the shut down RHD when the Leafs were going well.

that math would be right if the statement were true/accurate there are not 62 top 2 pairing defencemen in the league. Just because some teams have multiple does not mean all teams have them. Look at edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Devils, Detroit all 5 dont have any actual top 2 defencemen they have top 4's filling the slots.

he was 5th because of his offensive proweness but not in overall skill, I would take mcdonagh any day of the week over rielly and mcdonagh was a 2nd to any team and a 1st to some, He didnt put up more than 45 points yes but he was exceptional defensively. With your arguement we can say DeAngelo is a top 10 D man in the league because he has 41+ points?

Just anti Leaf rhetoric. Rielly could very well be the most underrated player in the world only because he plays for TO. Matthews could score 60 goals this year and still he won't be considered a top 10 centre by people like you.

The top 62 D in the league should be considered top 2D. It does not matter how they are allocated between the teams.