5. Mike Reilly
I wrote about Mike Reilly of the Boston Bruins in my top 5 free agents that the Carolina Hurricanes should target, so its only prudent that he finds himself in the top 5 defenseman the Hurricanes should target because he is quite possibly the perfect player to replace Jake Bean. A puck-moving, 3rd pairing left-handed defenseman who is also solid defensively is something that the Hurricanes should look at and Mike Reilly could be the answer.
Another one of the outcasts from Ottawa’s defensive core in the past few years, Mike Reilly was traded two days before the 2021 NHL Trade Deadline to the Boston Bruins for a 3rd round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.
Reilly hovered around a consistent point every other game, with 19 points in 40 games with the Senators and 8 points in 15 regular season games. To go along with that, Reilly had 4 points in 11 playoff games, weirdly enough not having a single goal throughout the entirety of the 2020-2021 season.
Taking in an analytics take on Mike Reilly, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic has his projected contract as being 4 years at $4.1 million. Dom cites Reilly’s 51% expected goals rate as being “impressive with a poor Ottawa team, being the best puck mover behind Thomas Chabot. His move to Boston bumped his expected and actual goals rate to 60%. He plays extremely sheltered minutes but has a low bust rate over the next seven years.”
With Mike Reilly expressing interest in returning to Boston, and Kevan Miller recently retiring (as well as Brandon Carlo, his defensive partner being re-signed), the Bruins are more than likely going to bring back Reilly.
He is also not going to be the most expensive player ever to bring back, and the Bruins have a good amount of cap space; that is why Reilly is low on this list. He would, theoretically, quite possibly be the best replacement for Jake Bean if Bean gets selected in the upcoming expansion draft.