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He is the longest tenured player on the Toronto Maple Leafs and now, Morgan Rielly has 800 NHL games played under his belt. The Maple Leafs’ assistant captain and long-time defenceman reached the milestone game in a loss to — fittingly — the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. However, he did tally his first goal of the season in the milestone game.
Rielly was drafted by the Maple Leafs fifth overall in 2012 and debuted with the team in 2013-14 finishing with two goals and 27 points in 73 games that season. Since then, he’s gone on to score 82 goals and 476 points in 800 career games with the Maple Leafs over parts of 12 seasons.
The 30-year-old had his best season in 2018-19 when he put up 20 goals and 72 points in 82 games for the team, but he is coming off a season in which he scored seven goals and 58 points for a Maple Leafs team that didn’t see much production from their blue line in 2023-24.
Morgan Rielly finds the back of the net in his 800th NHL game! 🍁#NHLStats: https://t.co/H9F4vkWw5H
📺: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/nhp5JskJnt
— NHL (@NHL) October 27, 2024
He sits 11th on the Maple Leafs’ all-time games played list, just 38 back of entering the top-10, and fourth among defensemen in the team’s history. He’s sixth amongst defenceman on the team’s all-time goals list — one shy of both Tomas Kaberle and Bryan McCabe — and third in assists. He’s also third in all-time points by Maple Leafs’ defensemen behind only Kaberle (520) and Börje Salming (768).
He’s just the 266th defenceman in NHL history to reach the 800-game plateau and just the 34th active blue liner to reach the mark. It’s also worth noting that he’s tied for 10th amongst active defensemen in points, alongside teammate Oliver Ekman-Larsson.