telnet-ssl doesn't seem to be a drop-in replacement, as it provides /usr/bin/telnet-ssl only, so we'd break any scripts making use of /usr/bin/telnet. So that package would need more work on our end to make it compatible.
Edit: Actually, telnet-ssl is using update-alternatives to provide /usr/bin/telnet, too.
telnet-ssl doesn't seem to be a drop-in replacement, as it provides /usr/bin/telnet-ssl only, so we'd break any scripts making use of /usr/bin/telnet. So that package would need more work on our end to make it compatible.
Edit: Actually, telnet-ssl is using update-alternatives to provide /usr/bin/telnet, too.