It was midway through the third period of a tied game against the Montreal Canadiens, when Morgan Rielly decided to do something that didn’t do nearly enough last season.
He joined the rush.
Following a turnover in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive end, Matthew Knies was sprung loose. The Canadiens gave chase. But so did Rielly, who sprinted up the ice and headed to the front of the Canadiens’ net, where he then buried a pass in front for his first goal of the 2025-26 season.
“Everyone in here wants to play well the first game,” Rielly, who had a goal and an assist, said following Toronto’s 5-2 win against Montreal on opening night. “You work hard all summer and you just want to get off on the right foot.”
For Rielly, getting off on the right foot ultimately means using his feet. It’s no secret that he’s one of Toronto’s best skaters. Only you wouldn’t know it, because he rarely used that asset to his advantage last season.
But now that Mitch Marner is gone to Vegas, the Leafs are looking for offensive help wherever they can find it — even if that means relying on Rielly to be a sort of fourth forward.
“I thought he had a really good game,” said Leafs coach Craig Berube. “Skated well, moved the puck well, had good reads … he was solid tonight. It was great to see.”
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The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t have any turnover on their defense from last season to this one , but they still wanted to see improvement from their highest-paid and longest-tenured defenseman.
The Leafs will need to see more of it this season if they are going to build off of last year’s division-leading 108-point regular season. It can’t just be Auston Matthews and William Nylander carrying the offense, although those two did combine for a pair of goals and four points against the Canadiens.
Last year, the Leafs ranked last in the NHL in goals from their defense. Rielly, who led Toronto defensemen with seven goals and had 41 points, was tied for 39th. A lot of that had to do with Rielly losing his spot on the power play, as Toronto went with five forwards on the top unit.
But even so, in a league where Colorado’s Cale Makar had 30 goals, Rielly’s contributions weren’t nearly enough. And he knows it.
“I think I’ve been open and honest about all those conversations,” said Rielly. “You train all summer and do what you can to be healthy as you can, you want to play hard, you want to play a team game. And so, here and now, our vibes here are good because we won. But we have a lot to work on.”
In 2018-19, Rielly finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting after scoring a career-best 20 goals and 72 points. But in the six years since then, he’s combined for 29 goals and has never really been part of the conversation for best defenseman in the NHL.
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Over the summer, Rielly and Berube had conversations about changing that and getting Rielly to get back to what made him so successful early on in his career. One game in, it appears to be working.
“I think that coming in, we tried to change the style of team — not so much run-and-gun, more controlling then game, good defense — and I think he took that to heart about trying to play good defense,” Berube said of Rielly’s play last season. “Sometimes when you do that, you’re not aggressive enough and you’re not jumping into the play because you don’t want to take chances as much. That may have been part of it.
“I thought he got better in the second half of the year and the playoffs, and he looked more like Morgan Rielly again.”
It helps, added Berube, that Rielly is playing regularly with Brandon Carlo. Ever since the team acquired the stay-at-home defenseman from Boston at the trade deadline last year, Rielly no longer has to look over his shoulder to make sure someone else is manning the fort. In other words, Rielly has the green light to go.
“And that was one of the reasons to put Brandon Carlo with him,” said Berube. “He’s really good at protecting his partner and doing all that stuff, so I think Mo’s got a lot more freedom and quite frankly when he came over here I thought Mo’s game changed.”
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Tick… tick… tick…
Part of the change has to do with the system that Berube is now preaching. He wants his defense to be more aggressive in the offensive zone. Of course, you can only be aggressive when you’re feeling good about your game. And one game in, it’s fair to say that Rielly is feeling pretty good.
“He’s confident with the puck, he’s making plays at both ends of the ice,” said goalie Anthony Stolarz. “I think he did a great job with his gaps and getting sticks on pucks and moving guys from in front… I think we can all see that the offensive talent is there and when he feels confident he can fly up the ice and join the rush like that. For him to get that goal, I think it’s huge for him and huge for us as a team.”
Now that big question: can it continue?
“We’re all trying to do it,” said Rielly. “It’s a great first win, but lots to work on.”
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