The Maple Leafs May Have Found Something for Morgan Rielly

Morgan Rielly is healthy again after that viral bug and looks set to suit up in Wednesday’s preseason game against Ottawa. At practice Monday, he was skating with Darren Raddysh, the new high-upside right-shot the Leafs brought in over the summer. That pairing isn’t just two names on a whiteboard. It’s a lefty puck-mover who still has the legs and the vision, next to a guy who just put up 70 points and owns one of the harder shots in the league.

On paper, it gives Rielly a partner who can create space and finish plays instead of simply surviving them.

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Rielly Had a Rough 2025-26 Maple Leafs Season

Last season was rough for Rielly. Eleven goals and 36 points in 78 games, a minus-18, and many nights when the defensive system under Craig Berube asked him to do things that never really suited him. Berube’s dump-and-chase, stay-home style buried Maple Leafs defensemen in their own zone. Rielly took more of the heat than most. The version of him that once put up 72 points and finished fifth in Norris voting felt a long way away.

Call me Mr. Optimistic, but I think the bounce-back is sitting right there. Jim Hiller is back behind the bench—the same coach who was on staff during Rielly’s best year. Early signals suggest the system will lean more into skating the puck out and getting it into the forwards’ hands with speed. Pair that with Raddysh, who can handle heavy minutes and still jump into the play, and you suddenly have a setup that plays to Rielly’s strengths again instead of fighting them.

Rielly Is One Solid Citizen and Teammate for the Maple Leafs

He’s still one of the best teammates in the room. Longest-tenured Leaf, the guy everyone respects, the one who has lived every high and low of this era. Fans have watched him carry the blue line for over a decade. They don’t need the 72-point version every night. They just need the confident, mobile, play-driving version that made him a cornerstone.

Give Rielly a lighter defensive load, a partner who can create, and a coach who knows how to use him, and it could be exactly the reset he needs.

It’s only practice, and preseason doesn’t decide much. But when you see Rielly and Raddysh together and remember what Rielly can still be, it’s hard not to hope. Maple Leafs fans have earned the right to believe in a little Morgan magic this year. I do.

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