TORONTO — Forget the notion of making one last ditch effort to earn a spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This wasn’t a night where that could be done.
In case there was any doubt, Joe Colborne was shipped out of town just an hour or two after Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Detroit to wrap up the pre-season schedule. Colborne had picked up two assists prior to getting sent to the Calgary Flames for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2014, but that didn’t make up for an otherwise underwhelming camp.
The Leafs elected to send the six-foot-five centre to his hometown team, where he’ll be reunited with new Flames president Brian Burke, rather than risk losing him for nothing on waivers.
No wonder it looked like there was so much on the mind of Leafs general manager Dave Nonis as he watched his team polish off a 5-2-1 record in the exhibition season with Saturday’s victory.
The most important thing he had to track on the ice was Morgan Rielly, who was put out so often that it ended up being easy enough to do. Rielly’s shifts against the Red Wings came in every situation as coach Randy Carlyle made sure the management team had plenty of opportunities to get another look at him.
You see, deciding between keeping Rielly or sending him back to junior involved more than just a calculator and the team’s salary cap matrix (although that will play a role as well). The question here was fundamentally one of development — requiring the future to be taken into account as much or more than the present.
There was no easy answer.
Rielly saw more ice time than any other player in Saturday’s game. With both teams icing versions of their American Hockey League squads it was dangerous to read very much in to what transpired, but the 26 shifts and 23 minutes 42 seconds on the ice for Rielly were clearly no coincidence.
The Maple Leafs braintrust needed to see the 19-year-old at least one more time. They might even end up carrying him into the start of the regular season just to make sure that they make the right choice.
“I think Morgan Rielly’s very close,” said Carlyle. “To say that, unequivocally, he’s ready to play in the NHL is a tough question to ask and a tougher question to answer at this point. We know he’s played very well for our hockey club, he’s a talented young man and he’s only going to get better.
“Those are the tough decisions that you’re faced with.”
There will be a trickle down effect on the other young hopefuls depending on what the team decides. To keep Rielly would almost certainly mean starting the year with seven defencemen and just 11 forwards — the possibility has been considered, Carlyle acknowledged – and that might also help explain why Colborne was deemed expendable.
The deadline for Toronto’s final roster decisions loomed at noon ET on Sunday since any veteran players Nonis intended to demote would need to be placed on waivers at that point.
It left a sense of uncertainty among the group that remained. Veteran John-Michael Liles, who played well alongside Rielly against the Red Wings, seemed just as unsure of his standing with the organization as his much younger teammates.
For his part, Liles scored a goal and added an assist in what was just his third game of the pre-season. It was an admirable showing given all of the speculation that has surrounded him. He’s done everything in his power to take everything in stride.
“There hasn’t been a camp in my NHL career where it’s your position set in stone,” said Liles. “It just makes it even tougher when you’ve got kids pushing you. You’ve got some great, young blue-liners in this organization, and they should be proud of the camp they had.”
Rielly is first and foremost in that group.
Mature beyond his years, the fifth overall pick from the 2012 draft was honest when asked if he could see both sides of the choice facing Leafs management about his future. “Absolutely,” he responded. While Toronto can keep him for up to nine games without burning the first year of his NHL contract, the only other place he can spend the year is the Western Hockey League.
“I feel like I am (ready for the NHL), but that’s up to the coaches if they want me to play this year or not,” said Rielly. “They have a goal to reach, which is to play in the playoffs again. That’s what they ultimately want.
“If they choose to keep me or to put me back to junior obviously I’ll understand. I’ll have to wait and see though.”
It promised to be a restless night of sleep for him and the others awaiting their fate – a group that included Liles, Carter Ashton, Jamie Devane, Trevor Smith, Troy Bodie and T.J. Brennan.
All of them except Liles carried low salary cap hits — although all but $925,000 of the veteran’s $3.875-million salary will be counted even if he’s in the minors –and could lay claim to a depth role on the squad.
However, there was only so much cap room and roster space to go around.
And then there was the case of Rielly, who didn’t look out of place during almost three weeks of training camp but demanded a different kind of decision-making criteria altogether. He was the key to the entire puzzle; the biggest domino that had to fall when Nonis and his assistants settled on their roster Sunday morning.