Auston Matthews and the Leafs leadership triggered the sudden push to trade Morgan Rielly

While they may not have directly called him out, Morgan Rielly's likely departure has a lot to do with the leadership group that asked the Maple Leafs to improve.

Rielly's the longest-tenured member of the Maple Leafs and a player who gets a fair bit of criticism for his play but nonetheless is a key part of both the lineup and the locker room - and someone who is deeply ingrained in the Toronto community.

But he's also been the likeliest candidate to be traded away from the team this summer due to his regressing production, lack of defensive help, age, and expensive contract that still has a few years left. With the team going through a reported roster turnover, then there's a high chance he is gone.

If that's the case, it ends the career of Rielly in Toronto and while it's a bittersweet situation, it does essentially need to happen if the team wants to be competitive sooner than later.

Matthews and the leadership group want Rielly out, even if they are keeping it quiet

Unfortunately for Rielly's teammates, they are aware of his shortcomings and have kind of pushed the Maple Leafs into a position where they need to trade him. John Chayka's press conference talked about needing to improve on the blueline, and with him being a man of action that is certainly at the top of his list.

The team needs to get a lot better at leaving their own end, making sure they get the puck to their forwards and actually giving themselves a chance on the power-play. Rielly is a decent offensive player but nowhere near what Toronto needs right now, and his teammates have told the team as such.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander both told the team during their exit interviews that the team needed to add more mobile defenders in order to get better per Darren Dreger:

What I was told...William Nylander and Auston Matthews told both coach and management, look, we believe in this team...we gotta add some players, we gotta bring in a couple dogs up front...and we need two mobile defensemen.

That wasn't a direct callout of Rielly but it's hard to imagine they were talking about a guy like Simon Benoit. Toronto has a slew of shutdown defenders who don't need to be a lightning bolt on the ice, but they do need a guy who can skate well to compliment them.

Rielly's not slow, but he's out of position a lot, and he doesn't have the quick turnaround to get back and help.

Chayka's decision to trade Rielly is much more than opening up cap space

There is of course a benefit of trading Rielly as it opens up a lot of cap space when it comes to signing free agents or making a trade but there is a much bigger reason to deal Rielly.

This is a direct order from the captain and your best players to improve, and as much as they respect Rielly as a person, they also need to have players who contribute - and this is a business first and foremost.

The writing is on the wall for Rielly, and he is obviously aware of the chatter. He was asked about a trade last year, was given a year to improve and didn't; so he needs to know that another chat is coming soon.

Chayka can trade Rielly elsewhere (San Jose perhaps) and get enough assets to help rebuild the team's defence both with pieces acquired and by opening up space. That gives the team a lot of ammo to sign Darren Raddysh or trade for Dougie Hamilton and not feel the pinch as bad.

There's no real reason to not trade Rielly at this point, and when your top players are essentially asking for it to happen you have to follow through.

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