The chatter involving the Toronto Maple Leafs trading Morgan Rielly isn’t going away anytime soon. The longer the 32-year-old blueliner remains with the team, the more trade talk will jump.
But this conversation could have been over by now. The Leafs reportedly had a deal in place to move Rielly this summer. However, the deal didn’t go through.
According to insider Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs had a deal set up with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks were looking for veteran help on the blue line, with Rielly becoming an intriguing option. But as Friedman pointed out in the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the Sharks chose Darnell Nurse over Rielly.
“They could have had (Morgan) Rielly. They got Nurse. I heard they really preferred Nurse… they had a choice, and they took Nurse over Rielly.”
Friedman didn’t expound on why the Sharks preferred Nurse over the Maple Leafs blueliner. The assumption would be that San Jose wanted a more physical player, given how they chose Nurse over Rielly.
Still, the decision does seem interesting, especially since Nurse has a much higher cap hit than Rielly. The Sharks could have saved about $2 million in cap space by trading for Rielly. Perhaps there was something else there that tipped the scales in favor of Nurse.
Maple Leafs Might Have Had Higher Asking Price
When looking at how the Nurse deal went down, the Oilers got a decent young blueliner in Shakir Mukhamadullin and a depth piece in Zack Sharp. The return was much more than anyone could have anticipated, considering Nurse’s seemingly untradeable contract.
Assuming a similar offer had been on the table for the Maple Leafs, getting Mukhamadullin would have been just fine. Some of the chatter suggests that other teams have been asking Toronto to throw in a sweetener to take Rielly on.
Perhaps that’s just other GMs playing hardball. But whatever the case, getting a former first-round pick in return for Rielly would have been a good deal. Mukhamadullin is still very much a prospect, and that’s why the Maple Leafs might have had a higher asking price.
That could have been the situation that turned the Sharks off Rielly and onto Nurse.
What to read next:
Could Rielly Still Be on the Move?
The situation now, it seems, is that the Maple Leafs are mum on the Rielly trade situation. It doesn’t look like the club will be looking to move its longest-tenured member. In fact, it seems like the organization will keep Rielly, at least for the start of the season.
If that’s the case, the Maple Leafs really wouldn’t lose anything by keeping Rielly. Yes, the cap hit is what most point towards as the most evident reason to trade Rielly.
But then again, the Leafs don’t really need to make a cap-clearing move at this point. That could change down the line. But judging from where things stand, there wouldn’t be a pressing need to make any moves at the moment.
Even though the Maple Leafs are $2.7 million over the cap at the moment, there shouldn’t be a sense of urgency. Assuming that Max Domi won’t be ready to start the season, the team could place his cap hit on LTIR. That situation would allow the club to stay cap-compliant, at least at the beginning of the season.
Once the season starts, anything can change. Never say never, but it doesn’t seem like a Morgan Rielly trade could be coming down the pipeline for now.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Maple Leafs Missed Chance to Trade Rielly This Summer appeared first on HEAVY.