I don’t mind him on the team, but the term and the cap hit are not palatable. It should have been 4 years at $6M AAV. An overpayment. I guess you can officially say, it’s not going to be a rebuild, but a quick retool. The Leafs still need at least one more, YOUNG defenseman. They also need a number 2 center. There needs to be some pruning. Robertson, Domi, Maccelli Stecher and of course, addition through subtraction. It’s time to get Rielly off of he roster and start acquiring draft picks for future use. No more trading firsts and seconds for journeymen. The Leafs are looking like they’ll be competitive next year, so those 2 lost 1st’s won’t be top of the draft phenoms. Enough of that shit going forward.
I think you need to really recalibrate your AAV for 2026 on with cap hits 104 > 113 > 120+
8.5 feels a tad high to me, but I hope they still move out Rielly to make room for more moves