And the Toronto Maple Leafs Select....

Last night in Pittsburgh was a draft to remember as 8 of the top 10 picked were defenseman.  With Nail Yakupov going where everybody knew he would, at #1 with the Edmonton Oilers, he is a lock to be on the Oilers next season. After Nail it is wide open as to who will be making their respective teams roster, although it seems that Ryan Murray will make it by default because the Blue Jackets have the worst defense in the league, as well as forwards, which they might as well put him out there because they are that bad.

From there on it was defense after defense until #11 came up.

But here at TML Blue Blood we do not care what other teams pick. We care about who we pick, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are proud to select Morgan Rielly a defenseman from the Moosejaw Warriors of the WHL.




 Morgan Riellyis not your normal defenseman. He shoots, he passes, and he plays all offense. He compares his game to a Kris Letang, where I see him more as a Erik Karlsson. He is a smooth skater and likes the puck on his stick, but where does he fit in with the Leafs?

With an already stacked up blue line this pick allows us to move guys up and down on D that are injured or are playing at the top of their game. I do not see Morgan Rielly on the team this year unless Burke can find a way to move some D around as in the one and only Mike Komisarek. With him still on the team that leaves us with the same blue line as last year except now you have the likes of Korbinian Holzer, Jesse Blacker and Stewart Percy knocking on the door.

The only thing that may set him back from making a pro roster this year weather it be the NHL or AHL is that he is coming off a major injury. At the start of the 2011-2012 WHL season Rielly tore his ACL while trying to drive the net as a defenseman. When he got hit, his leg twisted on the post and missed 5 months. Obviously this does not scare Brian Burke at all because after they selected him Burke came out to say "We had him at #1." This kind of scared me because if we did have the first overall selection would he still take Morgan Rielly?

Only time will tell if Rielly is set to become the defenceman he is set out to be. We all hope he is but we never know for sure.

This is my projected defenseman line up when trade deadline him in March without any trades of injuries.

          NHL
 Phaneuf - Liles
Schenn - Gardiner
Gunnerson - Rielly

 Extra: Komisarek  


        AHL
Blacker - Holzer
Gysbers - Rielly
Lashoff- Percy

If we were to trade or a long term injury occurred I see Holzer coming up and then Rielly.


-GO LEAFS

-Daniel Testa