(WGR 550) – The Toronto Maple Leafs went all-in on an aging, declining former Buffalo Sabres center on Friday, acquiring Ryan O’Reilly in a three-way trade.
The trade started off with the St. Louis Blues sending their captain to Minnesota for forward Josh Pillar. The Blues kept half of O’Reilly’s $7.5 million cap hit.
The Wild then sent O’Reilly to the Leafs for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. The Wild kept 25% of O’Reilly’s salary.
O’Reilly is two seasons removed from his three fantastic seasons, which included scoring 77 points in 82 games and 23 points in 26 playoff games. In 2019, O'Reilly helped carry the Blues to their first and only Stanley Cup championship, where he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the postseason.
In his next season, O'Reilly had 61 points in 71 games, followed by 54 points in 56 games.
Since then, it has been a rapid decline for the 32-year-old, as he only has 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points in 40 games this season.
O'Reilly started his career with the Colorado Avalanche as an 18-year-old and played 427 games in Denver. He scored 90 goals and 156 assists for 246 points with the Avalanche.
It was at the NHL Draft on June 26, 2015 when O'Reilly went to the Sabres along with Jamie McGinn for former first-round picks Mikhail Grigorenko and Nikita Zadorov, former second-round pick J.T. Compher and a 2015 second-round pick, who never made the NHL.
O'Reilly played 224 games for the Sabres before wearing out his welcome, scoring 65 goals and 111 assists for 176 points.
Buffalo then traded O'Reilly to St. Louis on July 1, 2018 along with a 2018 second-round pick for former first-round pick Tage Thompson, a first-round pick in 2019 that turned into University of Minnesota defenseman Ryan Johnson, Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and a second-round pick. The Sabres were forced to take Berglund and Sobotka to help the Blues' salary cap situation, and neither player wanted to be here and played like it.
O’Reilly will be Toronto’s No. 3 center on the depth chart behind Auston Matthews and captain John Tavares.
This season, Matthews has 26 goals and 29 assists for 55 points in 48 games. Tavares has 24 goals and 31 assists for 55 points in 55 games.
Mitch Marner leads Toronto in scoring with 65 points in 55 games. Will Nylander has 30 goals and 34 assists for 64 points in 55 games.
As for the rest of the trade, Toronto sent Mikhail Abramov, Adam Gaudette their own first-round pick in 2023, the Ottawa Senators' third-round pick in 2023 and Toronto’s second-round pick in 2024 to St. Louis for forward Noel Acciari.
Acciari, 31, has played 361 NHL games with the Blues, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. He has 55 goals and 40 assists for 95 points.
This season in St. Louis, Acciari has 10 goals and eight assists for 18 points in 54 games. Acciari was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Providence College in June of 2015.
Abramov is a 21-year-old center taken in the fourth-round of the 2019 NHL Draft by Toronto. He’s played 100 games with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL, scoring 13 goals and 31 assists for 44 points.
Gaudette is a 26-year-old center taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the fifth-round of the 2015 NHL Draft. In 218 NHL games with the Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa, he has 27 goals and 43 assists for 70 points.
In 56 AHL games, including 40 with the Marlies this season, Gaudette has 26 goals and 20 assists for 46 points.
Toronto is currently in second place in the Atlantic Division, 13 points behind Boston and one point ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s almost assured that Toronto will open the playoffs against Tampa Bay in April.
The Leafs visit Buffalo on Tuesday for their second matchup of the season.
