I gotta say, I was not expecting this. The deal is fair compared to what he would have got on the open market, but a little surprised considering he is kinda an offensive guy.
Definitely love his personality and commitment to Toronto. Hopefully he can live up to this one.
With other Dmen getting almost 10 for similar production to Rielly there's no way anyone can say no. Leafs keep their #1 D which would've been a gaping hole if he walked
Not complaining about this. Rielly's been through this moron team's ups and downs over the years, moreso than anyone else on the roster, and I would've been really upset had he up and left.
Could've gotten more but I'm happy he took a reasonable AAV.
I don't see how this is a smart use of limited cap space for this team. He's an unbelievably skilled player, but it's a hell of a lot to pay for a guy who arguably takes away more value defensively than he brings offensively. Things are gonna be really tight, and I don't think it's smart to prioritize this over leaving your cap space to sign your starting goalie.
I like the deal in isolation. It's a good aav with the market of the last 6 months, and more or less the lower end of what I've been hoping for the last 2 years (7-8.5 mil). Term is not terrible at 28 at start of contract (27 now). He's not 31.
In isolation I'd give this contract a b+, almost an a-
My issue as a Leafs fan is it doubles down (triples down, quadruples down?) On our core when I would have rather kept the flexibility at this point to pivot a bit if another failure...