After a disappointing year, Maple Leaf Morgan Rielly has a ‘clean slate’ and a new defence partner - Toronto Star

New signing and top defenceman Darren Raddysh and the team's longest-serving player are starting the season on the same defensive pair.

Morgan Rielly says he’s “extremely happy and grateful to be” in Toronto after an off-season full of trade speculation.

Offence won’t be an issue, but if there’s a secret to playing defence with Darren Raddysh, Morgan Rielly is so far unaware of it.

“We’ll find out,” Rielly said Monday at Maple Leafs training camp. “We want to work well together. Obviously, I think we were both hoping to play with each other, and I think there’s an opportunity there for us to be great. We’re going to try everything we can to execute on that.

“So, if you think of anything, let me know.”

It’s an honest question and the biggest one to pop out Monday when coach Jim Hiller paired his two most potent offensive blueliners together. Neither is particularly known for their play inside their own blue line.

“We think they can be a good pair,” said Hiller. “We’ll try to spot them a little more in the offensive zone if we can and give them more minutes with some of our top six forwards. Not that they can’t get defensive-zone minutes and defend the other team’s top lines, but we think we can get them with our top six and give us some advantage.”

Part of the trick to keeping the puck out of the net — especially with those two defending — will be forwards speeding back to help, an emphasis in the early part of training camp.

“That makes everybody’s job easier defensively, particularly the defenceman,” said Hiller.

Raddysh, with a salary cap hit of $8.5 million (U.S.) a year, has supplanted Rielly ($7.5 million) as the team’s top defenceman. He’ll get a lot of leeway. With that booming slapshot of his, he’ll be on the top power play.

“He’s a great player, has tons of great assets, and so hopefully we can work well together,” Rielly said. “We’re both coming into the year very excited and anxious to get going and anxious to have a good start.”

Rielly’s runway is a bit shorter. More than any returning Maple Leaf, Rielly may have the most to prove. He’s the team’s longest-serving player, drafted fifth overall in 2012 and emerging as a rookie in 2013-14. He bleeds blue and white. But to many eyes, his game cratered the past couple of seasons — though to be fair, just about every Leaf veteran failed to live up to expectations last year.

“I understand the narrative,” Hiller said of Rielly. “People got down on Morgan. I’m giving him a clean slate and I’m glad he’s excited to play. I expect a great year. For years, he was looked upon favourably by everybody. So sometimes things turn, and sometimes they swing a little too far.”

Rielly was subject to trade speculation for the first time in his career and the real possibility he might no longer be a Maple Leaf.

“After a year like last year, I think there were a lot of guys who maybe felt a little bit of uncertainty with the future, but that’s part of the business, and that’s part of what happens especially after a disappointing season,” said Rielly. “I’m extremely happy and grateful to be here now. This is my home. This is the team that I love, that I would do anything for.”

Rielly acknowledged that part of the equation includes playing better.

“I look back on last year, and at the start I felt really good, and I felt like I came out and played really well, and I think when the team dipped, I dipped, and lots of other guys dipped,” said Rielly. “I spent a long time trying to work on that, trying to get to the bottom of that, finding solutions on how to not let that happen again.

“That’s part of the journey. That’s part of a career. It was challenging. You’ve got to embrace those challenges, and everything that comes with being a part of this team and playing in this league. We all feel grateful to be here now.”

Hiller said Rielly looks as if he’s rediscovered his love of the game.

“You play a lot of games in one place, it can become a bit of a routine, a bit of Groundhog Day,” said Hiller. “You have to reignite the passion. He’s done that. Since I started talking to him back in July until today, I can just see him lighter, smiling, happier, ready to go. I’m really happy to see that.”

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Kevin McGran is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Bluesky @kevinmcgran