Leafs draft Morgan Rielly

Since Brian Burke was named the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has constantly said he likes to build his team from the blueline.

So it should come as no surprise that Burke used the 5^th overall pick in the NHL draft on Friday to select Morgan Rielly, an offensive minded defenceman from Moose Jaw of the WHL.

“Our scouts are ecstatic,” said Burke moments after the pick. “We had this player rated first overall. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.”

Rielly suffered a torn ACL  early this season, and didn’t play for much of the campaign. But the 6 foot, 190 pound native of West Vancouver, BC returned to action late in the season where he scored 3 goals and had 15 assists in 18 regular season games.

“I think the injury set him back on some team’s lists,” said Burke. “We’ve checked out the injury and we are not concerned about it.”

“High compete level, good skater, hard worker, I’ll do anything to help the team,” Rielly said when he was asked to list his qualities as a hockey player.

What this pick does more than anything is give the Leafs plenty of depth in the organization on the blueline.  

Burke now has plenty of assets now with Jake Gardiner (17^th overall pick in 2008 coming off a 7 G, 23 A season with Toronto),  Stuart Percy (Toronto’s 1^st round pick, 25^th overall in 2011), Jesse Blacker (58^th overall pick in 2009) and Korbinian Holzer (111^th overall pick in 2006) who at 24 years of age is primed to be a regular in the NHL next season.

Oh, and we didn’t mention 22 year old Luke Schenn who is entering his 5^th NHL season this fall.

Burke has some depth to possibly make a move – maybe for Roberto Luongo.

Or Rick Nash.

Maybe Tim Thomas.

But that is for another day.  This night belonged to Morgan Rielly, a player one scout told me is “dynamic” and is a tremendous playmaker.

“This is a guy you don’t have to tell to work hard,” said Burke. “He is probably going to be fast tracked but we’re not expecting him to pay this year (in Toronto).”

“He is mature in terms of his decision making.”

The coolest thing about the Leafs picking Rielly was his father’s reaction.  When Morgan’s name was called, Andy Rielly couldn’t hide his delight. You would have thought he won the lottery.

 “He’s a big Leafs fan. I’m not surprised,” Morgan Rielly said.