Toronto Maple Leafs Need a Total Fluke to Land an Elite Defenseman

The Toronto Maple Leafs best defenseman is Morgan Rielly.

Not only is Morgan Rielly the Toronto Maple Leafs best defenseman, but there isn’t even any competition for the title.

But worse, Rielly isn’t anywhere close to being an elite, no-doubt, number-one defenseman.

Sure, he’s a good top-pairing player, but he’s not even close to being in the top ten in the league, anymore. Now, having one of those isn’t a prerequisite to winning, but it helps.

The Leafs blue-line is a major weakness, but it’s weakness is it’s averageness – the lack of elite skill is what really hurts.

This is because non-star players don’t have much of an effect on games. Whether It’s Justin Holl or John Klingberg, Timothy…