There are a lot of rumors swirling but those rumors are now turning into more "real possbilities" as the guys at TSN put it.
Sabres would trade him to get scoring on the wing, because we now have "too much" talent down the middle which I think is a load of BS. They think that with Mittelstadt coming up, it's going to be him & Eichel with #1C and #2C. Also it seems we wouldn't mind moving his $7.5mm Cap hit to free up some space.
My personal opinions:
1. O'Reilly brings too much to the table to move him. The guy is a minute eater, a monster on the PK, one of the better all around players in the league a lesser Toews/Kopitar IMO. He's the guy who does everything and I think we won't realize that until he's gone.
2. If we're trying to ditch salary, there's so much garbage dead weight on this team making millions, but Botterill doesn't want to use buyouts to avoid penalties in the future which I understand, but we are paying some guys ridiculous money to not do much.
Okposo ($6mm) - Not the same since his health issues, hope he can turn it around.
Pominville ($5.6mm) - Had to take him back to get Scandella, only signed 1 more year so life goes on
Moulson ($5mm) - We literally paid him to go play for someone elses AHL team last year. Stuck on the books for another year.
Bogosian ($5.1mm) - Closest he's been to a full season is 64 games for us. Last year played 18. Signed for 2 more years at 5.1 is my candidate to buyout, there's no room to pay him that with the other people we have. Our D is too log jammed with talent to waste money and space on him.
*IF* we draft Dahlin which you would assume we will, we will have:
Ristolainen
McCabe
Dahlin
Scandella
Beaulieu
Bogosian
Not to mention we just signed Pilut to an entry level deal out of Sweden and have Nelson/Guhle who look like they can make the jump.
3. I don't think the value we end up getting back for O'Reilly is going to represent the value he gives to the team. That's a lot of eggs into the Mittelstadt basket without knowing too much about how he performs in the NHL. I think he will be a great player but wouldn't you want O'Reilly around to mentor him and ease the pressure on the kid? We shall see but I'm hoping if they actually do trade him, it better be something worthwhile in return.
I’m so out of the loop on NHL gossip, mostly because I just wait for things to actually happen so I can discuss rather than wasting my energy waiting with “what if’s?”.
That said, I had no idea trading ROR was a current possibility? What’s up with that? Dude is the Sabres best all-round player? But again, I’m out of the loop and honestly know nothing about the Sabres except they have the first pick in the draft.
