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Brian Burke still believes Morgan Rielly was the best player of 2012 NHL Draft
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Photo credit: © John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Michael Mazzei
Jan 28, 2025, 09:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 28, 2025, 07:56 EST
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Former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke stands by his assessment that Morgan Rielly was the best player of the 2012 NHL Draft.
Shortly after the Leafs selected Rielly with the fifth overall pick, Burke did an interview with TSN where he made the bold claim that he and the Maple Leafs felt Rielly was the top prospect available that year and they were happy to have selected him because of it. Those comments certainly raised some eyebrows at the time, given there high hopes for the players taken ahead of him, including first overall pick Nail Yakapov.
Nearly 13 years later, Rielly may not have emerged as the best player of the draft but he has certainly had the best career out of anyone taken in the top five and arguably in the top 10 as well. Burke made an appearance on The Sheet with Jeff Marek on Friday where he reflected on the 2012 Draft and why he viewed Rielly so highly.
“What cracks me up about it is you would never go out and say to the media that we had Morgan Rielly rated number one unless you did, because our guys had him rated number one.  He only played about 11 or 12 games that year because he blew out his knee and he was rehabbing his knee.  This is a guy who went and got on the bus when the team went on road trips with crutches on, even though he wasn’t going on the road trip. He got up at four in the morning or late at night and see the team off. Just a quality person.
But I watched every shift that Morgan Rielly played that game twice.  We had our video guy cut every shift he played. I watched from start to finish twice. I was convinced he was the best player.  Now you look at that draft there are a couple of good players in there but Morgan was the best. But someone said to me after that, ‘You just said that, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Did I say that about Nazem Kadri at seven? No, he wasn’t number one, but Morgan was.'”
As Burke points out, Rielly missed a lot of time that season because he was rehabbing his knee. The blueliner played 18 games in his draft year, yet was a point-per-game player, and he continued that upward trajectory from then on when he was healthy.
Rielly turned pro during the 2013-14 season and has been a mainstay on the Leafs ever since as he emerged to become one of the team’s most important players in the years that have followed. Rielly has seen it all and has riden the waves that this era of the franchise has been though, yet has remained loyal to the team and even made an eight year commitment that ensures he is a Leaf for life.
While Burke was not around at the start of Rielly’s NHL career, his parting gift for the team he would be fired from roughly seven months after making this selection has paid dividends for many years. He may not be having a strong season by his standards, but Rielly remains the Leafs’ leading scoring defenceman (22 points in 50 games) on a team that once again has aspirations of going deep into spring.
If history is any indication, there is a good chance he is saving his best for the playoffs as he has proven to be one of the few core members to up his game when the stakes are high. It has no doubt been a frustrating year for Rielly with fans questioning if he still has it, but he can erase those doubts with a spring for the ages.
Burke may have made a bold statement at the 2012 Draft when he declared Rielly to be the best prospect of his class, but the former GM has nonetheless been proven correct that his team made the right pick.
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