Former Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke recently expressed an unexpected opinion regarding the struggling Morgan Rielly during a podcast discussion. recently expressed an unexpected opinion regarding the struggling Morgan Rielly during a podcast discussion.
Selected fifth overall by Burke and the Leafs in 2012, Rielly has been a key figure on Toronto’s defense since the 2013-14 season. As the longest-serving Maple Leaf on the current squad, Rielly has experienced a wide range of events with the team, from playoff disappointments and rebuilds to the drafting of stars like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander. At 30 years old, he has remained a steady presence despite the many changes the team has undergone over his 12 seasons.
Even with uncertainties surrounding his future with the team due to his performance this season, Burke continues to back him, reiterating his previous statement that Rielly was the best player in his draft year during his appearance on Jeff Marek’s ‘The Sheet’ podcast last week.
“What I find amusing is that you would never publicly claim that we had Morgan Rielly rated as the top player unless it was true, because our team genuinely ranked him number one. I truly believed he was the standout player. There were some solid players in that draft, but Morgan was the best. Someone asked me afterward, ‘Did you really just say that?’ Did I say the same about Nazem Kadri at number seven? No, he wasn’t the top choice, but Morgan definitely was.”
Brian Burke stands by his comments that Morgan Rielly was the best player in his draft…#leafsforever #leafsnation #thesheet pic.twitter.com/MGvOzxmcK6
— The Sheet with Jeff Marek (@thesheethockey) January 27, 2025
Burke was somewhat correct in 2012 when he ranked Rielly as the top player.
The four players selected before him in the 2012 draft were Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Alex Galchenyuk, and Griffin Reinhart; currently, two of them are in the KHL, while the other two have retired. In contrast, several players picked after Rielly have developed into superstars, including Filip Forsberg, Tom Wilson, Tomas Hertl, and Andrei Vasilevskiy—who the Leafs are very familiar with by now. Although Burke believed and continues to believe that Rielly was the best in that draft, one can only imagine the potential impact if the Leafs had traded down to pick Vasilevskiy instead.
Could they have enjoyed more playoff success earlier? Would they even have drafted Matthews, Marner, or Nylander? Of course, hindsight is always clearer. Currently, Rielly leads all players from the 2012 draft in games played with 841 and ranks third in points, behind only Forsberg and Hertl.
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