The Toronto Maple Leafs have faced many rumors this offseason about veteran defenseman Morgan Rielly. The team wanted to create more salary cap space and make changes to its defense.

Because of that, many people expected Toronto to trade Rielly early in free agency. However, he is still with the team. And due to this, a new report by House of Hockey says that keeping Rielly may have cost the Maple Leafs a chance to improve their defense.

The Maple Leafs wanted to sign veteran defenseman Mario Ferraro in free agency. The team believed Ferraro could help the defense while carrying a lower salary cap hit. However, Toronto first needed to trade Rielly and clear cap space before it could make the move.

Tyler Ball of House of Hockey noted that Ferraro wanted to join the Maple Leafs. However, Toronto told him it first needed to trade Morgan Rielly to create salary cap space before it could complete a deal. When that trade did not happen on time, Ferraro decided not to wait and signed with the Winnipeg Jets instead.

House of Hockey also said that the 28-year-old Ferraro can produce offense similar to Rielly while costing much less against the salary cap. That lower cap hit could have given Toronto more money to improve other parts of the roster during free agency.

The Maple Leafs have not confirmed that they tried to sign Ferraro. Still, the report has created more talk about the team's offseason plans.

Since Rielly is still on the roster and the team has limited cap space, Toronto has not made the big changes on defense that many people expected before free agency started.

Another post added weight to the reported sequence

The same report also included more details from Hockey 24|7, which shared extra information about the situation on X.

The account posted: "Mario Ferraro wanted to sign with the Leafs. The leafs told him that they needed to make cap space, by trading Rielly. Ferraro didn’t want to wait for the trade to happen, he then signed with Winnipeg."

The post supports the House of Hockey report. It also suggests that Toronto could not continue talks with Ferraro because the team was unable to trade Morgan Rielly first.

Even though Ferraro has now signed with Winnipeg, Toronto’s plans for its defense are still unclear. If the Maple Leafs still want more salary cap space, they may look to trade Rielly later in the offseason. If not, the team will need to find other ways to improve its roster before training camp starts.

This reported missed chance has made Toronto’s offseason even more interesting. The pressure is still high on the team as it tries to build a strong roster for a serious playoff push.

What do you think? Was this a missed chance, and will Leafs regret it? Let us know in the comments. 

Read more at the NHL Fan Central.

Written by

Kapil Manghnani

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason