The Toronto Maple Leafs opened their 2025-26 regular season with a 5-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena, and what they saw from their top defenseman was exactly the Morgan Rielly the team needs. David Alter was particularly impressed.
For Toronto, the game wasn’t pretty. Montreal’s young core of players was faster and controlled 55 percent of even-strength puck possession. The difference? An aggressive Morgan Rielly.
The Maple Leafs defenseman scored the game-winning goal in the third period, jumping into the play created by teammate Matthew Knies and burying the chance.
While Rielly has long been Toronto’s No. 1 defenseman and typically generated the most offense from the blue line, that production diminished as he adjusted to new head coach Craig Berube’s system. Perhaps it was the commitment to playing better defensively, but the truth is Toronto was missing a No. 1 threat on the back end last year. That’s why Mitch Marner quarterbacked Toronto’s first power-play unit and the club elected to use five forwards.
Before training camp, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving revealed that he had a long conversation with the defenseman over the summer, which Rielly “took to heart”. What ensued was a commitment to get back to being the player that once scored 20 goals and 72 points in a single season.
Forward Bobby McMann, who trained with Rielly throughout the summer in Toronto, detailed the defenseman’s commitment: “It was kind of me and him going at it together in the summer. And he showed up every day, put the work in, continued to be a professional this far into his career,” McMann said. “He’s still hungry. He still wants it. And he wants to win so bad, and he wants the best for himself. And you can see that.”
Rielly still had a form of success last year with seven goals and 34 assists in 82 games , but that ranked last in goals scored by a defenseman across the NHL. When the Leafs acquired Brandon Carlo from the Boston Bruins on the day of the 2025 NHL trade deadline , that appeared to unlock some of Rielly’s offense. In 13 playoff games last year, Rielly scored four goals.
“He’s really good at protecting his partner and doing all that stuff,” Berube said of Carlo. “I think Mo has got a lot more freedom. And quite frankly, when he came over here, I thought Mo’s game changed quite a bit.”
One game, of course, does not a season make, but getting Rielly feeling like an offensive threat bodes well. He led all Leafs with an expected goals (xG) rating of 1.24 at even strength.
It wasn’t all good things for Rielly and the Leafs in the opener. Toronto gave up a shorthanded goal to Montreal and really failed to generate much with the man-advantage. The Leafs have put Rielly back on the top power-play unit in an effort to find some success, but it was less than smooth.
“I think it looked like our first game,” Rielly said. “There was some good and some not so good, but I think it’s good just the way that we kind of stuck together and pulled it out. I thought we played well in the third, and that’s important.” Toronto’s puck play was lacking, which may have something to do with the fact that there are so many new faces this season. But if their mainstay players can consistently replicate their peak performance, then Toronto should still be a force to defend their Atlantic Division title.
With the new NHL season now underway, the gang at Clearing the Crease are back with their weekly podcast discussing all things hockey. Take a look at the first episode of the new season below.