Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly left Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with an upper-body injury, and will not return.
Rielly was ruled out prior to the third period. It’s unclear when Rielly sustained the injury, at the time of this filing.
The 31-year-old has recorded seven goals and 31 points this season. Rielly is the Maple Leafs’ longest-tenured player and he’s been struggling throughout the season, on the ice for a league-worst 63 goals at 5-on-5 this season.
“In terms of what went wrong, we will have to look at that,” Rielly said following Tuesday’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres. “What I said before about just being desperate and that idea of playoff hockey and that idea of where we are in the standings and how we need to play to move up and to make a push. Obviously, we didn’t have it. This is new for me here, the situation that we’re in. It’s difficult to understand.”
Rielly has been a durable player for the Maple Leafs throughout his tenure, playing in all 82 games during the 2024-25 campaign. It would be a tough loss for the Maple Leafs if Rielly misses time, with Chris Tanev already out of the lineup indefinitely. Toronto will play the Calgary Flames on Monday, followed by a game against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, before heading into the Olympic break, which provide several players with ample opportunity to rest.
“Whenever you’re going through a tough stretch, your confidence waivers. But ultimately, that’s not an excuse or anything like that,” Rielly said Tuesday. “Guys have to go out there and play within structure, play hard, and execute. Once you start doing that, it comes back pretty quick.”
As the Maple Leafs are trending towards missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade, Rielly has been mentioned among several other players as potential trade candidates.
The Leafs Nation will update this story as more details emerge.