Leafs Get Two Steals in Rielly, Kadri Deals

By Alex Hobson

On April 14th, 2016, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced the signings of forward Nazem Kadri and defenseman Morgan Rielly to six year contract extensions. This was expected, but came out a lot sooner than people thought. It was announced only two days prior that the Leafs had begun talks with Morgan Rielly and there were no reports of talks between the Leafs and Kadri at all. Yet today, the deal officially happened.

Leafs sign Kadri and Rielly to 6-year deals.

— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) April 13, 2016

Now, the majority of fans were left on their heels when the terms of the contracts were not announced until a half hour later, and for the most part, everyone was pleasantly surprised. Kadri would make $4.5 million annually through 2021-2022, while Rielly would make $5 million annually through 2021-2022. To speed things up, I'm here to explain why these are both very good deals.

NAZEM KADRI

Kadri isn't exactly the most supported player among Leafs fans. Many feel he is a "diva" and plays too risky by embelleshing a little too much. That being said, they should celebrate him for what they have. He's an effective second line centre who improved his defensive game greatly under Mike Babcock and loves getting under the skin of his opponents. He became one of the league's most hated players leaguewide this season, which is always a good thing. He drew the most penalties in the league this season and put up 46 points playing alongside of regular third liners in Michael Grabner and Leo Komarov this season. A first line of James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri, and William Nylander next season could be very exciting to watch.

Now let's look at his contract and see if it matches up to his play. Personally, I think the Leafs made the right decision with Kadri in ending the bridge deals and locking him up long term. The average salary for a second liner is between $3-5 million, and like I said before, Kadri had a solid season for the Leafs given the fact that he was focusing on improving his defensive game and played with third liners for the majority of the season.

 With players such as William Nylander, Nikita Soshnikov, and Mitch Marner likely to reserve full time roles on the Leafs next season, along with the possibility of Auston Matthews or Steven Stamkos donning a Leafs jersey next season, Kadri's offensive totals could really shoot up.

MORGAN RIELLY

Rielly is a somewhat different case, but they also got a very, very good deal out of him. Lots of young offensive defenseman have been given the same deal. A couple comparables are Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dougie Hamilton, and T.J. Brodie. Rielly's offensive totals have gone up slowly each year, with his 36 points this year being his career high, and similar to Kadri's case, if the Leafs' offense improves next season as a whole, we could see an actual breakout season from Rielly. He put up 36 points while only playing on the powerplay unit for half the season and like Kadri, spent the year focusing on improving his defensive game.

In terms of his contract, Rielly actually makes less than both OEL and Hamilton. While that may not matter now, if he develops the way he should then we could very well be celebrating a steal three or four years down the line. Paired with the right defenseman and given powerplay time with skilled forwards in the future, Rielly could potentially hit 50 points, which wouldn't be an unrealistic thought given the fact that he's a former fifth overall pick.

All in all, Rielly's contract was probably the better one out of the two, but both are very good. Rielly has improved his play each year significantly and has shown no signs of stopping under Mike Babcock, so down the line I think he could end up being a steal for $5 million a year, and that goes for Kadri at $4.5 million a year, too.

Thanks for reading.