Early training camp thoughts on Morgan Rielly, Calle Jarnkrok, and Ben Danford: Leaflets

Two practices in and it’s time to start talking about the on ice version of the Leafs again. Sunday’s preseason game will give birth the freshest and hottest of takes but for now there are at least a few things worth commenting on from camp so far.

On Rielly

A lot has been made of both Craig Berube and Morgan Rielly’s opinion of Rielly’s 2024-25 season and his failure to live up to expectations.

While most of the talk has been about how this is on Rielly, it’s worth appreciating, as an outsider, that a lot of Rielly’s failures can be attributed to Berube and Van Ryn’s coaching as well.

Sheldon Keefe was Rielly’s coach throughout the entirety of his prime. He had a green light that never went away and there was an appreciation for high risk stretch passes that you wouldn’t want to see a typical defenceman make but you aren’t wrong to trust in Morgan and his ability to make those plays. Neutering Rielly at 5v5, his true bread and butter and criticizing him for failing to come through defensively seems like a fundamental misunderstanding of Rielly and you’d hope that heading into 2025-26 the Maple Leafs coaching staff is aware that telling Rielly to focus on defence will only result in more defensive errors without the offensive upside.

Putting Rielly back with Carlo to start camp should hopefully be a sign that the Leafs want Carlo to be Roman Polak/Luke Schenn/Ron Hainsey, not an attempt to turn Rielly into Hampus Lindholm.

The thing is, there is an equal part of this on Rielly as well and while I’m not sure how much you can blame Rielly for aging, Morgan losing pace last season is a huge concern and at least so far Rielly has said the right things about his attempt to address it.

Rielly has always been a hardworker and a player that takes his fitness seriously. He’s always been one of the first Leafs to take accountability for shortcomings and he’s lived up to that. The fact that he’s “in the best shape of his life” and looking strong in practice is great. He’ll probably look great in the preseason too, but the thing with Rielly and with most players, there is no way of knowing whether the concern is still real until the regular season.

On Jarnkrok:

The sarcastic take might be that it’s not hard to be the standout talent on a line with David Kampf and Michael Pezzetta but no matter where the bar has been placed, Calle Jarnkrok has gone over it in camp so far.

At worst, Jarnkrok has made his case for being the 13th forward on the Leafs (14th once Domi returns), and at his best it is easy to see Jarnkrok as being ahead of Robertson, Cowan, and potentially challenging others for a spot in the Leafs lineup on opening night.

Jarnkrok looked like a fit last post season alongside Lorentz and Laughton and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Craig Berube move back in that direction after the first couple of preseason games, but while Jarnkrok has looked good, the question of whether he’s the right decision for the Leafs over the course of the season still remains to be seen.

The Leafs need to commit to giving Nick Robertson opportunities. There is a benefit of Easton Cowan figuring things out in the NHL as well. Calle Jarnkrok is what he is and that’s a pretty solid bottom six player but on a team that now includes Scott Laughton, Nicolas Roy, and Dakota Joshua, what Jarnkrok brings might not be a priority.

If he won’t be on the Leafs, Jarnkrok is well on his way to making a case for a job somewhere in the NHL this season and there is some potential for sellers remorse if the Leafs move on from Calle only to need a player later on to cover off injuries.

He will be an interesting player to watch in regard to if he moves off of the line with Kampf in camp. If he moves up the Leafs likely still see him in their plans.

On Danford:

The final thought for Leaflets this week focuses on the preseason and Ben Danford.

There was a brief moment of hope that with some of the new CBA items taking effect this season that Ben Danford might be eligible to play in the AHL this season. That would have been an ideal outcome for the prospect and the club but alas there is plenty of work to be done between the NHL and the CHL in order for 19 year olds to even be eligible in the AHL next season, let alone this one.

While anything can happen in training camp there is a need to be grounded in reality, and it is pretty safe to say that Danford is a long shot to make the Leafs this season. That’s fair and with the World Juniors on his radar there are some meaningful development milestones to still take on in the OHL.

That said, there are six preseason games and while expecting Danford to get in all of them is stretch, it would be great to see him in at least four or five. As much as Danford can get a taste for what he’ll soon face as a pro and give both Danford and the Leafs development team a good understanding of where Ben’s focus should be is going to matter a lot more than taking a lengthy look at Dakota Mermis.