Why the Maple Leafs Would Be Wise to Apply a Bit of Pressure On Morgan Rielly

Considering how strapped the Toronto Maple Leafs have been over the last several years with respect to the salary cap and how many immovable contracts they had, they did a fairly good job at navigating through.

However, as we saw things unfold this season, moving on from those NMC contracts can be a near impossibility and Mitch Marner proved that. The skilled winger refused to waive his NMC at the deadline and eventually forced his way out through a sign-and-trade, hanging his former club out to dry, leaving them with only a new 3rd line centre in Nicolas Roy in return, rather than the deal for Mikko Rantanen they could have had at the deadline.

If history teaches us anything, the Maple Leafs need to find a way out of some of these types of deals and it starts with defenseman Morgan Rielly.

Rielly carries a $7.5 million dollar cap hit for the next 5 seasons with a full NMC for the next few years, and the worst part is that his play has been diminishing of late.

Any big moves the Leafs could potentially make hinges on Rielly's willingness to work with the team in waiving his NMC, but that's easier said than done.

It's not a complete lost cause, since we've seen New York Rangers GM Chris Drury manage to get out of Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider's contracts. Granted, they weren't looked upon as popular tactics by the rest of the players, but he still managed to do the unthinkable and it's time for Brad Treliving to do the same.

Rielly is still a serviceable defenseman who can play big minutes, contribute to a power play, and provide good two-way play, but a change of scenery would probably do him wonders and there are a few places where he'd fit in very easily.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if Rielly is still employed to start the new season as a bounce-back is certainly plausible. However, for this off-season to be a success and for the Leafs to embrace change, they have to at least approach him with some options to allow themselves some additional flexibility in their quest to try to change the DNA a little bit on the back end.