While John Tavares is going to receive the bulk of the headlines when it comes to available centers this summer due to his looming free agency, Buffalo’s Ryan O’Reilly is certainly a name to keep an eye on as well. In a segment on 630 CHED (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman stated that he expects the Sabres to receive a lot of interest in their two-way pivot.
Last month, O’Reilly made waves at his exit interview, stating how he was content with losing and was losing his passion for the game. Some have speculated that his preference is to be dealt and that his comments were a ploy to force his way out of town.
The 27-year-old has emerged as a high-quality two-way player and is one of the best in the league at the faceoff dot. He also has been quite consistent offensively, putting up between 55-64 points in six of the last seven seasons; the one year he didn’t was the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign (where his point-per-game pace extrapolated to 57 points over a full year). This past season, he had 61 points (24-37-61) in 81 games while taking over 2,000 draws for the first time in his career, winning a career-best 60% of them.
There is, however, one other notable factor and that’s his contract. O’Reilly has a $7.5MM cap hit which may be difficult to fit in for some teams but the breakdown is also noteworthy. The majority of his deal is in the form of signing bonuses that are payable in the summer; his in-season salary is just $1MM per year. Potentially, that could present a concern for some more budget-conscious teams, especially since the setup allows him to be paid most of his money even if there is another work stoppage on the horizon.
Despite that, given the demand for quality centers, it’s certainly reasonable to expect that GM Jason Botterill will field some quality offers in the weeks to come. In the interview, Friedman alludes to a belief that Botterill feels he needs to change the core (aside from drafting defenseman Rasmus Dahlin next month) and moving O’Reilly would be one way to do so while landing a quality package in return.
O’Reilly to Montreal for the 3rd overall pick!!!
Worth much more
The 3rd overall pick is worth significantly more than O’Reilly. There is a reason a top 3 pick has not been dealt in the cap era(the Tyler Seguin pick was not a top 3 pick when traded). 3 years of minimum salary on a potential star plus the minimum 4 years of cost controlled seasons is insanely valuable. I’m a huge O’Reilly fan but Buffalo would have to add significantly because O’Reilly’s contract does not offer much(if any) surplus value.
If traded once next season’s bonuses are accounted for he has about as much value as a 5th o/a. He is proven to be a valuable 2nd line C. A 3rd o/a is a stretch as the top 3-4 seem to be elite this year. Not crosby/ovechkin/mcdavid elite, but top of their class. Svechnikov, Dahlin, Tkachuk, and Zadina seem to be above the others. I wouldn’t trade one of them for O’reilly but one in the next tier… another story.
I think I’d agree with that. Your chances of drafting a star level player drop something like 50% after the 3rd pick. 5th overall would be the absolute ceiling in my mind but a pick in the 7-10 range would be fair value. As for his bonus, I couldn’t find any specific info on Cap Friendly about when it was due or if it was paid in instalments rather than one lump sum.
Straight up for Willie Nylander. This year’s playoff demonstrated the Leafs complete lack of grit.
Ya. 7.5 will be palatable for the leafs. Should be no problem
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What do you think Wee Willie is going to get?????