Is Morgan Rielly the new face of the franchise?
Highly regarded defenceman may be next in line for title, but parents keep him humble
Morgan Rielly is 21 years old, wisened in the ways of hockey pressures through down-to-earth conversations with his mother, and far from allowing himself to be distracted by phrases like “face of the franchise.”
But that phrase is important to pro sports franchises, even if it’s humbling to the athlete. That tag happens by association, when an athlete is featured in marketing, on media guides, almost anywhere the team is seeking exposure to its fan base.
At the moment, Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf is that athlete, while coach Mike Babcock may be the “face” the Leafs most frequently market this season.
Rielly may be next in line, but plenty of mother-son chats over coffee have left no room for that level of prestige to go to his head.
“For me, when I hear that, it’s tough,” Rielly said recently during Leafs training camp.
“I don’t put much thought into it. I’m sure it can help your confidence if you listen to it, but I try to control what I can, which is what I do on the ice, putting the team first and be a good teammate. If you do that every day, you give yourself a chance to be all you can be as an athlete and that’s the main goal for me.”
After a summer of drastic and dramatic change, the status of who the face is, the Leafs franchise seems in transition. Phaneuf remains the second-most tenured player, and an obviously recognizable figure via his captaincy.
Rielly seems destined to be the next one to transcend the daily rigours of being a defenceman with the Leafs. Face of the franchise? Don’t expect the still-developing native of West Vancouver, who has just two seasons in the NHL, to discuss that topic with ease yet.
His parents, for one, wouldn’t allow it.
“When it comes to performance on the ice, my dad taught me a lot and my mom definitely talked to me a lot when it came to extra attention,” Rielly says of his parents, Andy and Shirley. “She made sure I was humble, made sure I was a good person first before I was a good player, and that’s become very important to me. When I go out to dinner or I’m out with friends, I remember what my mom said. Even now, I’m in the NHL, and my mom and me, we have these conversations about what playing in Toronto is like, what’s coming up for me. “I moved away from my family when I was young and my mom seemed to feel that she missed a couple of years of parenting . . . so now she wants her boy to know everything I need to know about hockey and life. We have these conversations over coffee and that’s always impor- tant to me and important to my family, that it’s about what kind of person you are more than what kind of player you are.”
Who becomes the next face of the franchise isn’t likely to spark any long-lasting debate for the time being in Leafland. The franchise is in a rebuild mode, a plan centred on a new, powerhouse executive-leadership group and a drive to develop young players through the draft.
That youthful theme may not even blossom at the start of this season. The Leafs have talented young players such as Connor Brown, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, and Nikita Soshnikov, but are stocked with experienced NHLers. The club could open the season with no rookies on the roster.
Rielly’s rise since he was taken fifth overall in the 2012 draft has been meteoric — a development arch filled with high-level praise from all corners of the league. Even during a miserable collapse in the final months of the 2014-15 season, Rielly continued his upwards developmental roll, finishing second in team scoring after the all-star break.
If Rielly is anointed as the next “face,” he will need to embrace the pressure that comes with it.
“When someone says that, it’s an extreme honour,” said Phaneuf, whose commitments include yearround support for Special Olympics events, especially near his summer home in Prince Edward Island, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“But the main thing is you want to have success on the ice,” Phaneuf added.
“When you have that tag put on you, you do more things outside (in the community), and it’s expected of you, but the bottom line is you gotta perform on the ice, do your job.”