Maple Leafs Morgan Reilly Nearly Became a Montreal Canadien
Morgan Rielly nearly became a Montreal Canadien and their former GM revealed how he almost pulled it off.
Morgan Rielly Nearly Became A Hab
Back in 2012, the Montreal Canadiens held the 3rd overall pick while the Toronto Maple Leafs had the 5th pick. We know that the Canadiens took Alex Galchenyuk and the Leafs made out like bandits with Rielly at five.
Recently, former Canadiens GM, Marc Bergevin, revealed that he wanted to select Rielly over Galchenyuk in 2012.
Galchenyuk VS Rielly
Galchenyuk and Rielly are on the opposite ends of the top pick spectrum. Rielly has played 719 games and has scored 414 points, all with the Maple Leafs. Rielly is undoubtedly a top defenseman in the NHL and the perfect piece to complement the Maple Leafs' core four.
Galchenyuk on the other hand only played for six years with the Canadiens. He played 418 total games with the Habs and scored 255 points before being moved on from. Since then Galchenyuk played for 6 other NHL teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs. He never impressed with his new teams and signed with Arizona earlier this offseason.
However, after getting arrested, Galchenyuk had his contract terminated and signed in Russia where he will play for the next few years. It seems evident that his NHL career is all but over and will likely end unceremoniously as well.
If Reilly had gone off the board at 3, then the Islanders likely select Galchenyuk at four and now the Leafs are left with the decision on which defenseman to select: Griffin Reinhart, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Dumba, Derrick Pouliot, or Jacob Trouba.
As seen on Habs Fanatics - We have just learned that Alex Galchenyuk is not the player Marc Bergevin was going to draft in 2012
| POLL | ||
4 SEPTEMBRE | 915 ANSWERS Maple Leafs Morgan Reilly Nearly Became a Montreal Canadien Would the Montreal Canadiens have won the 2020 Stanley Cup with Morgan Rielly? | ||
| Yes | 247 | 27 % |
| No | 668 | 73 % |
| List of polls | ||
