Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – It’s been five days since Ryan McLeod was traded to the Buffalo Sabres from the Edmonton Oilers.
The 24-year-old recently just finished playing in the Stanley Cup Final with the Oilers, and helped take the series to seven games before losing to the Florida Panthers.
During his introductory Zoom call with the media on Wednesday, McLeod admits he didn’t see this trade coming.
"I was a little surprised. I wasn’t expecting to be traded, but I’m super excited too at the same time," said McLeod. "I’m coming to a team where there’s a lot of excitement around, and I think it’s a great spot."
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McLeod says he was taking wedding photos at a friend's wedding when he got the call from the Oilers about the trade.
The native of Mississauga, Ontario played with Leon Draisaitl more than he did Connor McDavid in Edmonton. He says it kept him on his toes playing with a player like Draisaitl.
"It was great playing with him," McLeod said. "My game is a lot of speed, and I try to play on the defensive side of the puck. I’m still working on my offense, but having the confidence to play with Draisaitl, he’s a demanding player and he wants to make so many great plays. You’ve got to do those if you want to play with him, so the experience helped me."
Even though McLeod scored three goals in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final, he’s still not where he wants to be offensively.
"I need to score more goals," McLeod admitted. "I try to make a habit of shooting the puck more and getting to the net more, so anytime you can chip in offensively and score a goal, it can help the team."
In six career games against the Sabres, McLeod has two goals and three assists for five points. He was a plus-5 in those six games, as well.
"They look great. There’s a lot of skill on that team, and they’ve got a lot of skill in the back-end too. It’ll be fun to play with that," McLeod said. "They’ve got a lot of good puck movers that can skate, and they’re a younger team than I had in Edmonton. So I’m excited. It should be a lot of fun."
McLeod came to Buffalo quite a bit when his older brother, Matt, played four years with the Canisius Golden Griffins. Matt is still playing hockey with the Belfast Giants in the Elite Ice Hockey League in Great Britain.
McLeod will be 25 in September, but he already has three full seasons in the NHL, and 10 games into a fourth. He has already played 56 playoff games, and says there’s nothing like the grind of playoff hockey.
"It’s tough to win, I’ve learned that," McLeod acknowledged. "It’s tough to make the playoffs, especially in each round, because it gets tougher against harder opponents.
"The biggest thing we did in Edmonton was we tried to keep our confidence as high as we could."
McLeod was a former second-round pick of the Oilers in the 2018 NHL Draft, but he spent very little time in the minors. He only played 91 games, plus five playoff games with the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL.
