They gathered in October at Nick & Sam’s, a high-end steakhouse in Dallas that serves up fried lobster, 48-ounce porterhouses and a steak named after Dallas Mavericks star, Luka Dončić.
Each year, Morgan Rielly treats members of the Maple Leafs’ medical and equipment staff to dinner. The trainers’ dinner is a small gesture of thanks from Rielly, the Leafs’ longest-serving player, to the behind-the-scenes people who make the team go.
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“I almost don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” Rielly said when I first asked him about the tradition recently, which began a number of years back. “It started because there was a person before that used to do that.”
That would be Dion Phaneuf, the former Leafs captain who took Rielly under his wing when Rielly’s career with the team began way back in 2013.
“They’re every bit as important to this team as the players,” Rielly said of the staff, explaining of the meaning behind the annual dinner. “It’s just a cool moment to say, ‘Hey, we’re all in this thing together.’ Everybody wants the same thing, and even though there’s only 20 guys on the ice, there’s a lot more than that all pulling on the rope. When we do well, they experience ups. And when we do sh–ty, they experience the downs.”
Rielly has known a few of them for the entirety of his Leafs career, 11 years and running now, including head equipment manager Bobby Hastings, assistant equipment manager Tom Blatchford and head athletic therapist Paul Ayotte.
“We’ve become friends, we’ve become close,” he said. “I’ve been going back to Bobby’s office back there (at the team’s practice facility) a lot. And Paul, the same way. Paul came in my first year as well. We’re tight. We have a good time when we have dinner.”
“All those guys don’t want any of the spotlight, so I’m not gonna put them on blast,” he added. “But they’re some of the most popular guys in the organization, with the players, with the staff. Smart. Personable. Great sense of humour in all of them. Like, they’re all great, great guys. You’ve heard me talk about it, you’ve heard other people on the team talk about how great our staff is. It’s not something that I believe to be off the cuff or cliche or a nonsense comment. Like, that’s the truth. We have amazing people here. Auston’s been here his whole career. Mitch the same thing. We have grown up with these guys and they’ve helped us a lot, in our personal lives and in our careers.”
Ayotte, Rielly notes, is in constant communication with every player on the team.
“Paul, he probably texts at least 10 guys every day to check in on their well being, on an injury, on how they’re feeling,” Rielly said. “He’s incredibly involved.”
Ayotte will even travel to Sweden in the offseason to check in on William Nylander or to visit David Kämpf in Czechia. He’s the first person to hit the ice when a player suffers an injury in-game and the one to inform head coach Sheldon Keefe about injuries. He’s constantly monitoring the health of the players.
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“They’re on it full time, full tilt all the time,” Rielly said. “You can make the argument that because of the (draft) combine, because of the draft, because of prospect camp, because of all this other stuff, it’s a year-round thing, even more so in their lives than it is for us.”
Hastings, Blatchford, assistant equipment manager Chris McKeage and equipment assistant David Roper are on the go constantly. They buzz around the Leafs’ dressing room before and after practice, before and after games, ensuring that every player has exactly what he needs to perform on the ice. Which means knowing the little intricacies of each and every player’s gear.
As Rielly said, “Every guy has a unique thing to his equipment, and they know everything. So when you get a new pair of gloves, that adjustment’s already been made.
“They know everything. They could take care of literally anything.”
They also work the longest hours of anyone on the team, leaving the arena after games well past midnight to haul gear to the practice facility and arriving again just a few hours later to prep the dressing room for practice.
“So that just happens without us really having to worry about it,” Rielly said. “There’s constant communication with them. They’re constantly trying to help you. They’re constantly trying to help the team.”
They’re part of the team in more ways than one.
When Rielly is pulling a prank, say, like one he pulled off recently on Mark Giordano and his skates (no further details provided), it’s the equipment guys scheming to make it all happen.
It really set in for Rielly just how much the team means to all of them, the often unseen hustlers powering things behind the scenes, last spring. The Leafs had just beaten the Lightning in Game 6. The playoff series was over. The Leafs were moving onto the second round for the first time since 2004. There was jubilation in the dressing room at Amalie Arena in Tampa when Rielly bumped into a member of the staff. He wouldn’t say who but this person had tears in their eyes.
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“And I’m looking at him — and that really struck me to being like, Wow, he’s as proud and happy about the win as we are. That means the same to him as it does to us,” Rielly said.
Rielly got choked up.
He wouldn’t forget it. It was a reminder of why he says thanks, officially, at least once a year.
(Top photo by Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images)
