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Would Morgan Rielly Excite Canucks in Blockbuster Trade?
Would the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs make for good trade partners if a Morgan Rielly for J.T. Miller trade was on the table?
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks could be ideal trade partners ahead of the March 7 deadline, hints Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos. As discussions heat up around a potential blockbuster involving Miller being traded out of Vancouver, Kypreos suggested defenseman Morgan Rielly going back the other way.
Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne, and Sam McKee recently debated whether Toronto should explore a trade to send Rielly to the Canucks for Miller, considering Vancouver has made it clear that keeping Miller long-term is becoming increasingly difficult. Canucks president Jim Rutherford openly acknowledged that a trade is critical to get his team back on track, citing chemistry issues with star center Elias Pettersson as the main reason someone has to go.
Kypreos said:
“…Would you not now knock on the door of Jimmy Rutherford and you flip Morgan for J.T. Miller, who are roughly, I think, half a million dollars each off the salary cap? So that’s looked after. They’re both, I think, relatively the same age, and I think they both have relatively the same amount of years left on their contract, which is 5 years. Does that make the Leafs better?”
He added that Rielly gets to go home to Vancouver. “Morgan’s going to say no to a lot of teams. Going home to British Columbia, maybe, is the one team that Morgan would say yes too.”
Would a Rielly Trade Excite the Canucks?
Bourne played devil’s advocate a little and said the only concern for the Canucks is that Rielly is having a down season. Which version of the player would they be getting? If it’s a 30-point defenseman, the Canucks might not want to move Miller for that kind of player. And, if Rielly has to be on the second pair, that’s a lot of money tied up in a No. 3 or No. 4 blueliner.
Kypreos argued back that Rielly might just be having a bit of a down year and that the Canucks have to get Miller out of there. It’s probably a risk worth taking.
It would give the Canucks a much better upgrade on their blue line, which they have been looking for. And, it would move Miller out, which is priority number one.
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