Morgan Rielly rushes the puck up ice last season with the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Halfway through his first season in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, former Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman Morgan Rielly is getting more comfortable with his game at the next level.

Rielly cracked the Leafs roster as a 19-year-old and has had to deal with transferring his game from junior hockey to professional hockey and playing against men, while also figuring out life off the ice, living on his own for the first time.

“It's been going great,” said Rielly.  “It's been just a matter of changing how I act and how I played in junior and you've just got to turn the page on that, but it's been going pretty good here in Toronto.”

Since sitting out a stretch of games in early December, Rielly has become a regular in the Maple Leafs lineup and has been reaping the benefits.  The up and down start to his career is now starting to become more consistent night-in and night-out.

Marc Smith catches up with Morgan Rielly over the phone from Toronto.

“With each game that you play you get some extra confidence and that's huge,” said Rielly.  “Over the course of the past 12 games, I've really been able to keep improving and I have that extra confidence to carry the puck now and create some chances, and you've just got to keep on improving.”

Those last 12 games also mark the time that Rielly has stopped having to answer questions about his future in Toronto.  First during training camp, it was whether or not he was going to be sitting with the Leafs past the nine-game mark, then it was if the team was going to lend him to Hockey Canada for the World Juniors.  Neither happened, Rielly has remained with the Leafs and he's happy about that.

“There's always those questions in camp about if I was going to play here or not and then it was questions about whether I was going to play for Team Canada or not,” stated Rielly.  “I was pretty happy when that was over and I could just concentrate on playing here in Toronto and I didn't have anything to worry about, I just had to play my game and get comfortable and I was able to do that after those questions stopped coming in.”

Since then, Rielly has scored his first NHL goal.  “It was a pretty cool moment, something that kids dream of and I was happy that I got the opportunity to do it,” said Rielly on the goal that came on December 16th in Pittsburgh.

HBO was on hand to document that goal by Rielly as part of the 24/7 series on the road to the NHL Winter Classic.  There were camera crews following the Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings 24 hours a day leading up to the game on New Year's Day.  That was an experience that took some getting use to, according to Rielly.

“After all those practices when we had the cameras around, I think we're all happy that they're gone and we have a chance to not have to worry about that anymore,” he said.  “It was pretty cool to be on HBO with that, but we're all happy it's over with.”

Taking part in the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in front of an NHL-record over 105,000 fans was something that Rielly will never forget.

“It's pretty hard to explain, it was pretty cool out there and there's all those people screaming and you're playing outdoors and there's snow and everything, it's pretty cool,” said Rielly.  “We're all happy that we got a chance to play in the game and it's a game that we all enjoyed.”

The Leafs did go on to win 3-2 in a shootout with Rielly playing just over 13 minutes in, while registering one shot.  Rielly is currently tenth on the Leafs, and 18th overall among NHL rookies, in average ice time with 17:57 per game.  He has one goal and 12 points in 38 games.

Rielly and the Leafs snapped a four-game losing skid over the weekend with a 3-2 shootout win on Sunday against New Jersey.  They're back on the ice on Tuesday night in Boston to take on another Warrior alumni, Johnny Boychuk and the Bruins.