Rinat Valiev called up, Morgan Rielly sent to IR

The Leafs have a tendency for dropping the news you least expect, and Monday at 5:30 seems to be a great time to do that!

First, the Leafs blessed us with this offering…

And about three minutes later, they added this less-than-ideal backstory behind it.

Rielly was injured in Thursday’s game against Philadelphia, and sat in Saturday’s victory over Ottawa. His injury sets him out at least through this weekend’s all-star break. No other info appears available at this time.

It doesn’t appear that Valiev will be working into the lineup tonight, and may in fact be sent down immediately after the all-star break. It’s an intriguing move at the very least, as few really had Valiev on their radar as a full-time NHL player moving forward. With his entry-level deal expiring this season, it’ll be interesting to see if the Leafs do consider him part of their long term plans with at least Travis Dermott, Timothy Liljegren and Andrew Nielsen all ahead of him in both age and potential in most consensus organizational depth charts.

The 22 year old defenceman, a 2014 third round pick, has not played for the Leafs since the 2015-16 season where he suited up for 10 games, picking up… zero points while averaging 12:15 of ice time per night.

We’ll update you with more info as it becomes available.