This wasn’t the plan, obviously.
Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson weren’t supposed to play together this season — not all the time, anyway. The Maple Leafs coaching staff would hook them up for offensive-zone draws, or when they needed a goal, and that would be that. But then came a pair of November injuries to Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo, and suddenly there was almost no choice.
Rielly and Ekman-Larsson, two of the more productive offensive defencemen of the last decade-plus in the NHL, play together all the time. It’s been a surprisingly successful partnership: The Leafs are winning around 59 percent of expected goals in their five-on-five minutes, the sixth-best mark in the league among the 60 pairs to log at least 200 minutes this season.
Top pairs by XGF%
RankPlayer 1Player 2XGF%
1
Darren Raddysh
JJ Moser
64.4
2
Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun
62.1
3
Moritz Seider
Simon Edvinsson
61.9
4
Sean Walker
K’Andre Miller
61.8
5
Vladislav Gavrikov
Adam Fox
59.9
6
Morgan Rielly
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
59.7
7
Jordan Spence
Tyler Kleven
58.5
8
Esa Lindell
Miro Heiskanen
58.4
9
Charles-Edouard D’Astous
Emil Martinsen Lilleberg
57.4
10
Adam Pelech
Ryan Pulock
57.4
The Leafs are generating 3.4 expected goals per 60 minutes (fifth best) and giving up just 2.3 against (15th best).
“I think we’ve been able to create a lot of chances and lately, we’ve been playing good defence as well,” Ekman-Larsson said. “It’s super easy and fun to play with a guy like him.”
Now, some context is required.
With assistant coach Mike van Ryn at the controls, the Leafs stuff the Rielly-Ekman-Larsson duo into the offensive zone as much as they possibly can. (As they should; the two are by far the most able creators of offence from the back end.) Against the Lightning on Monday night, the pairing lined up for 11 faceoffs in the offensive zone and just two in the defensive zone.
Overall, the partnership boasts an offensive-zone faceoff percentage of 76 percent. That’s the second-highest mark of any of those 60 pairings. It also includes the first month’s worth of action, when Rielly and Ekman-Larsson joined forces for a smattering of shifts throughout every game. That kind of generous usage will help prime those underlying numbers.
Nor has this been the Leafs’ “top pair.” Of late, Jake McCabe and Troy Stecher have nabbed those duties, logging more minutes and checking top lines together in yet another unexpected injury-related development on the Leafs’ back end. It’s early, but they’ve performed superbly so far: In the last five games, the Leafs have outscored teams 6-0 in their minutes despite a number of tricky matchups
And yet it seems like the Leafs may have stumbled into something useful here.
It’s been 10 games since Rielly and Ekman-Larsson joined forces on the regular. The last five have been superb:
Goals for percentage: 67 percent
Expected goals for percentage: 63 percent
High-danger chances for percentage: 64 percent
The Leafs are generating 3.2 expected goals per 60 minutes in that stretch and 1.9 per 60 against. A ton of offence, in other words, and not much at all against.
“I think it’s just reading off each other,” Ekman-Larsson said, “and obviously we’re getting a lot of looks in the (offensive) zone.”
This isn’t the kind of partnership that tends to work: two like-minded, offensive-minded defenders, that is. Rielly has traditionally functioned best with a safe and simple partner. The Leafs traded for Carlo last spring to fill the role. Still, the results speak for themselves, and the pair have found a good balance in transition.
“When it’s time to make a tape-to-tape pass, and when it’s time to chip it out, he’s got good reads and good values there,” Ekman-Larsson said. “I think that’s why we’ve been successful lately.”
Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are both having stellar offensive seasons. (Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
It’s all happening in the midst of superb offensive seasons for both players — Rielly at age 31, Ekman-Larsson at 34 — and presents some interesting questions in the not-so distant future for van Ryn, Craig Berube and the rest of the Leaf coaching staff.
Rielly is on pace for 64 points, which wouldn’t quite be a career high, but comes with almost no power-play production (three points so far). He has been an offensive wrecking ball at five-on-five though, with 16 such points already. Only Cale Makar and Jakob Chychrun, with 19 apiece, have produced more league-wide. (Rielly had 19 five-on-five points total last season as he struggled to acclimate himself to the preferences of Berube in his first year behind the Leafs bench.)
In fact, this is the best that Rielly has ever produced in his career at five-on-five, with 1.9 points per 60 minutes. That’s the fourth-best mark among all NHL defenders this season.
All of which is to say that this is quietly shaping up to be one of the best offensive seasons of Rielly’s career.
Same deal for Ekman-Larsson. He’s on pace for a career-high 57 points in his 16th NHL season, also with minimal power-play production (three points). The 16 five-on-five points he’s collected ties Rielly, Zach Werenski and Josh Morrissey in the top five among NHL defencemen.
This all explains why the Leafs are now in the middle of the pack league-wide in offence from the back end after ranking near the bottom last season. Rielly and Ekman-Larsson are both active threats in the offensive zone and coming up the ice.
Rielly’s fifth goal of the season on Monday night was only the latest example.
HE RIELLY DID THAT!!@OREO | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/h32LxVleO2
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 9, 2025
More encouraging of late is how they’ve settled down defensively — which begs the question: What do the Leafs do when Tanev returns from injury? Do they keep this pair, which formed in the aftermath of Carlo’s injury, together if Tanev is back in the not-so distant future? (Carlo does not appear close.)
Option 1: Keep them together, reconnect Tanev with McCabe, and play Stecher with Simon Benoit on the third pair.
Rielly — Ekman-Larsson
McCabe — Tanev
Benoit — Stecher
Option 2: Keep them together, keep Stecher and McCabe together, and play Tanev with Benoit.
Rielly — Ekman-Larsson
McCabe — Stecher
Benoit — Tanev
Option 3: Break it up, but keep Stecher with McCabe, put Tanev with Rielly, and drop Ekman-Larsson back into third-pair waters with Benoit.
Rielly — Tanev
McCabe — Stecher
Benoit — Ekman-Larsson
Ultimately, without Carlo, Berube and his staff will have to decide whether Ekman-Larsson is the best fit next to Rielly or not. It’s going well enough so far that they might have to consider it.
