O'Reilly on the Trade Block?

[hf101]

according to twitter...

 

@adater

O'Reilly being offered around the league for a good D-man. Florida and Winnipeg. Pondering, Toronto and Montreal too.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Not really a big surprise here.

It was only a matter of 'when' not 'if'.

 

As we all know, Ryan O'Reilly and the Avs have had a contentious relationship, at best, for quite a while now...going all the way back to O'Reilly's hold out. We had the whole 'passed over for captaincy' thing too...and we had the 'what role or line' O'Reilly was best suited for...and of course, the crux of the holdout: money and term.

 

Given all that, I would say that overall, things have been relatively quiet (I.E., nothing has blown up into an all out team distracting thing), and the team was even able to win a division title WITH O'Reilly on the team...while he continued to produce.

 

Obviously, with a player of O'Reilly's talents, if you are the Avs, you don't just simply give him away just because you have had some disagreements.

But the writing has been on the wall, that should a good enough deal come about, or the team's situation dictates it (as it does now with the Avs struggling...especially on defense), then you try to make the best deal you can.

 

Ryan O'Reilly already has a pretty heft cap hit ($6M), so whomever ends up with him will not only have to deal with that, but also, ponder the prospect of re-signing him, as  he only has one year remaining after this season is up.  O'Reilly is certainly a very good player, but is a team willing to not only give up a prime player, but give O'Reilly another $6M AAV or more deal to retain him?

 

Guy is only 23 can still improve his game further...heck, he won't reach his career prime for another 2-3 seasons.

 

Money aside, O'Reilly is an outstanding 1st or 2nd line guy, good puck distributor, and plays the game without hurting his team on the ice by taking penalties while he goes about his business (yep..a Lady Byng type guy!)

 

The teams mentioned that are interested could ALL benefit from his services.

Situation becomes....who do they part with to get him?

[Commander Clueless]

 

according to twitter...

 

@adater

O'Reilly being offered around the league for a good D-man. Florida and Winnipeg. Pondering, Toronto and Montreal too.

 

 

I'm not entirely sure what "good" d-man the Leafs could be offering up. They have too few "good" d-men as it is, not to mention little cap space.

 

Could be Gardiner, although he hasn't been "good" this season. Maybe Franson? Pending UFA though...

[J0e Th0rnton]

@hf101@Commander Clueless@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

When they say "good" Dman. Do they want a well rounded Dman? Offensive Dman? Defensive Dman?

 

Trying to think of who would be game for him.

 

Sharks definitely do not need a Center, what with Thornton, Pavelski, Couture, Marleau all interchangeable on the top 2 lines as Centers(And all have NMC's). Thornton and Marleau being 35 years old though......a 23 year old center like him could be beneficial. Especially if he can play wing. Wilson keeps preaching he wants to go younger. This would not be "selling the future", as it is a 23 year old target.

 

But I keep thinking "They gave us a 2nd rounder for Stuart AND resigned him before seeing him play"(Obviously their staff suck or need their eyes checked), so maybe we can pawn off Irwin and Hannan to them and even throw in Niemi since Varlamov has been so injury prone and, well, not good this season. hahaha.

 

Realistically, Vlasic, Braun, Dillon, Burns and Mueller are not for sale so unlikely they trade with the Sharks. Which sucks because we have like 8.8 Million in cap space.