Look bud, we all know what you are going to say, insert any leaf player and they are overrated. You 100% at the start of this season were saying Boeser was a better goal scorer than Matthews. How did that turn out? Just a small man with an inferiority complex.

Hedman, Teows, Karlsson, Theodore, Bouchard, Morrissey, Dobson, Hamilton, Spurgeon, Weegar and Lindholm are definitely not in that range...

These guys are number 2s on their team or number 1s that can't play an ounce of defence or are way worse offensively

Your argument preseason was that Rielly can't preform in the RS... And now, he's done so while having more pressure and improving his defensive game (your other argument)...

He has earned his spot above the guys I've mentioned...

Makar
Heiskanen
Fox
Hughes
Dahlin
Josi
Slavin
Pietrangelo
McAvoy
Faber
Rielly

That puts him at 11... Right in my 10-15 range

It was worse, he claimed Toronto's top 5 is significantly worse than Vancouver's top 5 and Toronto's depth is also worse...

He claimed Connor Garland and Ilya Mikeheyev was better than Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi...

And guys like Drew Doughty, Chychrun and Weegar are better than Rielly

https://x.com/jfreshhockey/status/1754913847327031465?s=46&t=Em1kSTrQp8S8RWKcSKV0NA

“ These guys are number 2s on their team or number 1s that can't play an ounce of defence or are way worse offensively” - Rielly literally can’t play an ounce of defense and is worse offensively than a number of those players (Karlsson, Hedman, Bouchard, Dobson, Morrissey, Theodore, Hamilton)

How are you saying Rielly is better than Karlsson?? Karlsson is literally a better version of Rielly. Better offensively and same level defensively

Bouchard is better offensively and significantly better defensively. Same with Dobson, Theodore, and Morrissey

Spurgeon, Lindholm, Weegar, and Toews are all elite defensively, and can also provide a good amount of offense (specifically Toews and Weegar)

If you seriously think Rielly is better than those players you’re insanely delusional

Garland and Bertuzzi have the same amount of points despite Bertuzzi playing 2 minutes more per game, and Bertuzzi has had much better linemates (Tavares, Nylander, Marner, and Domi his most common compared to Joshua, Blueger, Suter, Lindholm, and Podkolzin for Garland)

Garland is also elite defensively whereas Bertuzzi is mediocre and Domi is straight up bad. If we’re ranking those 4 you mentioned

Garland > Bertuzzi > Domi > Mikheyev. Bertuzzi is close to Garland but Garland is better

You mean when Rielly's defensive pairing is either TJ Brodie (whom we know don't work together) or William Lagesson (struggling to make the Ducks)... And he's still putting up points... And a higher DZone starts % than the players you've listed + Quinn Hughes

(Natural stat trick)

Rielly without Brodie: 55% SF% (meaning he's controlling the chances)... 52% GF%

Karlson/Bouchard/Dobson/Theodore are awful defensively.... Please watch them play, Rielly's so much better and takes on more responsibility... I don't even need to waste my time searching for stats

And Rielly's outproducing Morrissey offensively...

The guys you've mentioned that are "elite" defensively... aren't number 1s on their team...

Congrats Devon Teows, you're so good, you need to play with Cale Makar and are still getting outproduced by Morgan Rielly... Weegar's just worse than Rielly offensively (how did you come up with them? Rielly has more points in less games while not having the support either has)


You're insanely delusional to think Rielly isn't better than the players you've listed... He's having a better season (with "lingering injuries" according to Keefe, that's why he's out right now)

Bertuzzi just went on a streak in which he didn't have a goals FOR 29 STRAIGHT GAMES and he still has more than Garland...

If Garland's so great defensively, why is his Ozone starts in the range of Pius Suter and Brock Boeser... Domi's playmaking makes him so much more versatile and he's better in the dirty areas

It's Bert>Domi>>>>Garland>Mikheyev

No need for delusion anymore

“Karlson/Bouchard/Dobson/Theodore are awful defensively.... Please watch them play, Rielly's so much better and takes on more responsibility... I don't even need to waste my time searching for stats” - Bouchard and Theodore specifically are great defensively. Rielly also has the worst GA/60 (by far) and the worst xGA/60 (by far apart from Karlsson) of that group + Morrissey

“And Rielly's outproducing Morrissey offensively...” - just not true as Morrissey has 7 more points in 8 more games

“Rielly has more points in less games while not having the support either has” - Really?? Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander etc. is worse support than Weegar has in Calgary?? Toews is a fair argument there, but he’s also elite defensively and also proved last season while Makar was out he can be the #1 dman

When have I ever said Boeser is a better goal scorer than Matthews? That’s just straight up dumb. I’ve actually defended Matthews quite a bit on this site, especially to Oilers fans who say Drai is better. Matthews is clearly a top 3C in the league and the best goal scorer in the league

Not sure where you’re getting those stats but Garland has the 3rd highest Dzone start% among Canucks forwards behind Joshua and Lindholm. He also has a much lower Ozone start% than Boeser (9.63% compared to 13.68%)

If Bertuzzi is so much better offensively why does he have the same amount of points as Garland while he is playing more minutes and playing with star linemates and Garland has been playing with bottom 6 players most of the year?

It’s Garland > Bertuzzi (close) > Domi > Mikheyev

Lets compare Matthews, Nylander, and Marner to Petterson, Miller and Boeser now!

Matthews is clearly 1 and Pettersson is clearly 2 imo

Marner, Nylander, and Miller are in the same tier. I’d probably put them in that order though. And Boeser is clearly 6th

So Matthews > Pettersson > Marner > Nylander > Miller > Boeser imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75eo0xa3Hgc... Super Fantastic defensively... So good, that I can bring up other examples... And on top of that, you are forgetting Rielly has the highest reponsibility out of the group... As the Leafs had nobody else for a long period of time (McCabe, Lilly and Brodie) being out for significant part of the season, so he's going to have to play the McDavids and the Mackinnons of the world whereas others don't...

Looking as ESPN, Rielly's on pace for 58 points in 74 games... Morrissey has 58 points in 73 games... With Rielly constantly playing 25 minutes+ a night

Defensively, Reilly doesn't... It's nice to have those toys up front... But when Maxim Lajoie and Micheal Riafali are a thing... It doesn't matter

And Toews struggled in the playoffs when Makar was suspended... 0 goals, 1 assists, 1 point in 2 games against is a Kraken team that lost in the following round, with his still fantastic defensive core... So Toews didn't prove sh1t without Makar

Money Puck says otherwise... Garland only has 1% higher DZone starts than Boeser

Because Bertuzzi went 29 games where he didn't register a single goal (snake bitten, literally hit the cross bar x4 on an empty net)

Since that Ducks game where he broke it, 12 goals in his last 17 games...

Bert>Domi>>Garland>Mikheyev

Of course a Leafs fan would base their opinion on one play…

https://x.com/firehollandpls/status/1754202702828171571?s=46&t=Em1kSTrQp8S8RWKcSKV0NA

58 points in 74 games is not better than 58 points in 73 games. Morrissey has a higher PPG and has more points. Rielly is not out producing him. It’s close but Morrissey is producing more. That’s a fact

You’re really using a 2 game sample size on Toews? What about the 22 games Makar missed in the regular season where Toews had 19 points? Just gonna ignore that?

Matthews>>>Pettersson>Nylander>Boeser>Marner>Miller

Would consider flipping Miller and Marner if there were to be a better argument

It was 19 games where Bertuzzi didn’t get a goal, not 29. Garland also had a similar stretch of 18 goal less games where he was snake bitten. Yet Garland still has as many points despite playing less minutes and having significantly worse linemates. If Bertuzzi was as good as you said he’d have a lot more points considering his linemates

Boeser over Marner and Miller? That’s kinda wild

Boeser is not better than Marner, you do watch the games right?

There are so many others examples of Bouchard being bad defensively (and the reason why Ekholm is stuck to him)

I misread the stats, I was wrong, I will admit that...

Yes, because frankly, most of those games didn't matter for Colorado as the were locked into a playoff spot very early (In April, where most team rest their stars unless they were the race or were milestone hunting). Playoffs matter much more than Regular Season and Teows struggled without Makar... And then factor in the Islanders playoff runs

You can't teach scoring... You can teach vision and defence as Tocchet did with Miller and Keefe did with Marner

idiotic take imo, this is Boeser's first year over 30 goals and first year over 55 points and he's older than Marner...

Marner has had 2 30+ goal seasons and multiple 90 point seasons... oh and 94 points before Keefe was even the coach, so not sure what Keefe taught him that he didn't already have. Without Marner, Matthews doesn't score 60 goals.

Marner is better and more valuable to the Leafs than Nylander is too.

Fine, it was 1 goal in 29 games while having another stretch of 2 goals in 12 games... more than half the season... and Bert has played 3 less games with Garland

And Bert got demoted to the 3rd line for a good chunk of the season too

this is also Boeser's first healthy season in a while... And he was on pace for 40+ in the shortened season as well

And I'm talking about the defensive aspect... Marner's defence has transformed under Keefe...

And moronic take than Matthews doesn't hit 60 without Marner... He still does as the Leafs would have 10.9 more million dollars to negotiate with for better defence in transition (Pietrangelo over Brodie and still has 6 mill to spend)

Nylander can create his goals much better than Marner IMO...

I'm not generally in line with public opinion... I watch the games and it forms my opinion