Rielly Disagrees with Captain Tavares on State of Toronto Maple Leafs

Alternate captain Morgan Rielly and captain John Tavares are split on how the Toronto Maple Leafs finished the 2024 playoffs.

Historically, locker room cleanout day signifies the end of a team's season and the start of the offseason. The Maple Leafs have a split opinion on the state of the playoffs standard.

Captain John Tavares stated in his season-end media availability that the team is close to getting over the game seven hurdles.




Morgan Rielly, one of the Maple Leafs' alternate captains, was certain that the team wasn't as prepared to go as deep as many originally thought they were. While the team erased a 3-1 series deficit to force game seven, Rielly felt that the team wasn't ready to slay the dragon.


David Pastrnak buried the Maple Leafs' hopes to slay that dragon in overtime leading to Rielly's disagreement showing that this team may need a major move to really make a Stanley Cup Playoffs run.

Rielly exhibited true leadership. He was brutally honest. He's not saying the team was right there. He knows that there's more for this team, but the truth of the matter is that the same core continues to be bounced early in the playoffs.

This further proves that Morgan Rielly should've been named captain and not John Tavares. Tavares seemingly doesn't want to go into the depths and dig incredibly deep to find that next gear the Maple Leafs need to win a Stanley Cup.