The St. Louis Blues added some forward depth today by signing Tyler Bozak and David Perron, but weren’t done making a splash. The team has acquired Buffalo Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly. The Sabres will receive a 2019 first round pick, a 2021 second round pick, Tage Thompson, Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund. The deal will be completed today and the Blues will pay O’Reilly’s $7.5MM signing bonus, due just before midnight. The 2019 pick is top-10 protected, meaning should the season get away from the Blues they will not have to give up a high pick next summer.
While the deal certainly brings several assets to the Sabres, getting rid of the Sobotka and Berglund contracts were imperative for the Blues to get something like this done. TO complete the deal without giving up one of their top prospects like Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou, while also protecting their deep defensive corps. The Blues are ready to compete once again in 2018-19, and have brought in some experienced forwards to put them over the top.
For the Sabres, they not only deal O’Reilly before having to pay his signing bonus, but also get five useful assets. While Sobotka and Berglund were slightly overpaid and potentially hurting the Blues salary structure, they’re clear upgrades on some of the bottom-six options that Buffalo has used over the past few seasons. Thompson meanwhile is an excellent prospect in his own right, and should give them another key building block in their quest for redemption. Grouping the 20-year old Thompson with Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel, Casey Mittelstadt and others will give Buffalo a core that they can really market as a future perennial playoff team.
Pierre LeBrun and Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic were the first to confirm the trade.
Lol islanders can’t get a break
Uncle Leo gave them a break for only signing at 3 mill a year lol
Doesn’t make sense for a team that needs as many good players to build around Eichel and Dahlin as possible. O’Rilley is a top center and you wont get that out of a mid 1st round pick.
A 1st rounder, 2nd rounder and center Thompson was also a recent 1st rounder that has great size and good hockey bloodlines. That money due is also nothing to overlook.
Tage is a nice pickup. The other 2 players with their salary is kind of meh. I have been in the dont trade ORiley crowd tho so i may be biased.
The picks are what they are, and Thompson is a nice prospect, plus they got two bottom six forwards to provide veteran leadership or some more picks if they’re willing to retain some salary.
O’Reilly is good player but one of the problems was that he was a disruption in the locker room. Also he 27 years old and they want a younger core of players 20-23 years old that will be together as a group hopefully for years to come.
Wow! I need to let this settle in a bit. That is a lot to give up, but I have a feeling that this is as much about turning over the locker room and the entitled attitudes as it is about the product on the ice. I think I will like this move…eventually.
Losing Ryan O can only be described as making all of us feel blue in Buffalo. He could score, he could win a faceoff and in a pinch could play goalie. One time he drove the Buffalo Bus when the driver ran away from the bus at an exceptionally long red light. The draft picks will all be combined to get Tom Vanick back from the Red Wings.
If you want to give us a 1st and a 2nd for Vanek, then by golly gee we’ve got a deal.
Boy Buffalo is doing well this offseason
Until you watch Sobotka and Berglund play. Then you will see they did St. Louis a favor by giving away O’Reilly for a couple draft picks and St. Louis’ 4th or 5th Best prospect
Thompson is the real deal.
Thompson has great hands and heavy wrister. He is light on a tall frame, very high upside. Blues gave up a lot but need some “real” players. Berglund and Sobotka might wake up.
Sabres fan asking for details on your assessment please.