Morgan Rielly shares hilarious memory of former coach Randy Carlyle when he faced off vs. Pavel Datsyuk

The list of Toronto Maple Leafs’ head coaches in franchise history is a healthy mix of gems and, well, polarizing figures. Whether that’s on the ice or to the media. One of the coaches who falls in the latter category is Randy Carlyle, who was behind the bench from 2012-2015.

As it stands today, the only current Maple Leaf to have played under Carlyle is Morgan Rielly, the team’s longest-serving player. The defenceman played for him in 2013-154, his rookie season, and partially 2014-15 before he was fired and replaced by Peter Horachek in the interim. As an offensive blueliner who, like most if not all, struggled with the defensive side of the game at the start of his career, he may have found himself prone to making mistakes against crafty veteran players like Detroit Red Wings legend Pavel Datsyuk, who just so happens to be one of the players in the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2024. The only reason he didn’t is that he never had the opportunity to.

Prior to the Maple Leafs game against the Detroit Red Wings, which will be preceded by the induction ceremony, Rielly joked that Carlyle purposely kept him off of the ice whenever the Maple Leafs played the Red Wings and Datsyuk was on the ice.

“The only memory that jumps out is Randy Carlyle aggressively trying to keep me off the ice when he was on the ice in my rookie season,” Rielly joked, to an eruption of laughter from the scrum. “I was fine with it, it was a little demoralizing though.”

“Just like, calling me off the ice. Which, again, I understand,” he continued. “Just a bit demoralizing in the moment. I think that’s just the way of a young defenceman playing against a future hall-of-famer.”

Rielly didn’t make the joke without giving kudos to Datsyuk, the veteran of 953 games who will be present for tonight’s ceremony, calling him a special player.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson echoed the sentiments verbatim, reflecting on his own struggles against Datsyuk as a young defenceman in the league.

“As a young guy coming in it was tough, he was so good. He was a special player. It’s cool that I got the chance to play against him, and get dangled by some good players over the years.”

The Maple Leafs will host the Red Wings Friday night in their second of four straight games against Atlantic Division teams, playing host to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night and the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.