Blues Acquire Ryan O’Reilly
After the Blackhawks had a… modest… opening to free agency, the Blues have gone big.
St. Louis has reportedly acquired center Ryan O’Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres for forwards Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and Tage Thompson. Buffalo also gets a first round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and a second round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.
O’Reilly had five years remaining on a contract with a $7.5M cap hit.
St. Louis also signed free agent forwards Tyler Bozak (three years, $5M AAV) and David Perron (four years, $4M AAV) on Sunday.
Blues going to be tough
No trustworthy playoff goalie. Average D. Mike Yeo coach.
No worries.
That`s what you call over paying for a f.a.
Outside of the picks which are always a q? mark. They didn’t give up anything to rough. Sobotka and berguland solid. But not the same caliber. Thompson solid prospect.
Schenn, O`Reilly, and Bozak to line up against……. no easy task!
He is a beast in the dot. He won 1274 faceoffs last year at 60%. Crosby was next with 1026. Jonny won 900. Bozak was 28th with 627 at 53.6%. Yikes!
Did the Hawks have the resources to pull this off? And if they did, should they have?
Hawks will be no better than a 90 point even with a healthy Crow of this is their roster.
IMO there is more to come from the Hawks – probably trades
Typical Blues move. They get pants annually in free agency because none wants to go to Stl, then over spend in a trade. ROR is a good player, just over paid and honestly has been part of some pretty awful teams recents. Then goes out in the media and talks about his “drive” and “energy”. If the guy had a better contract he’d be a valuable player.
If did they have the resources? mean-a quality roster player, one of their top 4 prospects and a first and second rd.-yes, but soooo glad they didn’t.
High 5 Noonan!
They sure seemed to give up a lot, especially future draft pics (#1 & a #2).
He’s 27, (28 in Feb) in his prime?
Armstrong said he made this deal only after signing Bozak and Perron and getting ownership to sign off on the O’Reilly deal. Have to admire the commitment to winning.
Nice move by Buffalo as well. They have Eichel, Middlestadt, Dahlin, Ristolainen and now Thompson to build around. Add in vets like Berglund, Sobotka and Hutton and they have gotten much much better in the last 10 days. Plus 3 first round picks in 2019. Wow !
Great trade for Buffalo. I think they were always smarting since in the days after he signed his huge deal, ROR got drunk and drove his car into a Tim Hortons wall. Or maybe it was a Wendy’s…ROR became LOL.
St.Louis seems not to have a strategy. Trading key players for today AND the future to get 1 key player for today is chasing your tail IMO.
St. Louis just reached the half-century mark without ever winning a cup. Until they improve their goalie situation, this drought will continue to grow. That’s just fine with us.
Yes, soooo glad we did not, do that.
I like it STL trading future away with those picks to be refer now. By the time we’re deep roster again STL and other won’t be as good as they are now/2 yrs.
The timing of central teams rosters could work out well for us.