Music: {allcanada} LEAFS PROSPECT RIELLY 'CONTROLS THE GAME'

Thursday, November 1, 2012

{allcanada} LEAFS PROSPECT RIELLY 'CONTROLS THE GAME'

The Toronto Sun lays out that watch Morgan Rielly, the Maple Leafs' first-round pick last June and a true blue-chip prospect in a Toronto organization that has not had bushels of them in recent years, skate in three games in three nights and what unfolds for the observer often is the same. He gets the puck on his stick and, more or less, it leaves his blade when he decides it will. "It's like he is playing a game of keepaway sometimes, that's what it looks like," Moose Jaw Warriors captain and teammate Kendall McFaull said. "He controls the game." The chances are excellent that Rielly will patrol the Leafs blue line for years, and, in all probability, some time in the near future. His skating ability isn't matched by many of his peers in major junior, no matter the position. Rielly skates the puck out of trouble like he was born doing it, and if he is on the ice, that's him leading the rush.

But the 18-year-old, who thrilled Leafs general manager Brian Burke and the front-office staff with his performance at the club's prospects camp in July, isn't a high-risk player. Everything he does on the ice is calculated, or it appears to be.

In the larger picture, Rielly showed himself to be a positionally sound player, one who doesn't have to use his stick for anything other than controlling the puck. In 16 games this season, his lone penalty was a fighting major on Sept. 22 against Swift Current. Ask the majority of defencemen how many hooking and holding minors they have been flagged for this season. When Rielly finds himself in trouble, his speed and smarts lead him to safety.

Rielly's passing is at the NHL level. If there's a challenge when the Warriors are on the attack, it's that Rielly's ability to read the game a step or two ahead of most of the others on the ice can result in broken plays.

For hard work and commitment, the easiest example involving Rielly was his determination to return to the lineup from a major knee injury, one that he suffered last Nov. 6. No one would have found fault had Rielly shut himself down and concentrated solely on preparing for the NHL draft combine the following spring in Toronto.

After training for a few months back home, he returned to Moose Jaw in February, bound to get back in the lineup. That happened on April 20, when he skated on to the ice for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against Edmonton.

"It said something to the entire hockey world," Leafs director of player development Jim Hughes said. "The thing about this guy is the mental mindset. When he came to the prospect camp this summer, he was on a mission. He has things in his mind he wants to see through. He is a serious kid, matter-of-fact. He knows where he wants to go, and he knows how to get there."