The Sabers trade O 'Reilly against Blues for two choices, three players – The Buffalo News

The Ryan O'Reilly Center, which signed the richest contract in the history of the Buffalo Sabers just over three years ago, was traded Sunday night by the same name. team against the St. Louis Blues. The Sabers have received a big advantage: a first-round pick in 2019, a second in 2021, potential striker Tage Thompson and veteran strikers Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka.

The widespread trade puts an end to three quarters of O'Reilly … He was one of the most used players of the franchise at a time when the results of the show were very good. team were largely a failure.

The Blues appeared on O & # 39; Reilly Sunday after signing Toronto center Tyler Bozak at three year, $ 15 million. They hesitated to separate from Robert Thomas, the center's best prospect, or Colton Parayko, an outstanding defender, but negotiations resumed and an agreement was reached Sunday night

. to make sure that you are comfortable with what is being asked for, "said GM Doug Armstrong of St. Louis on Sunday, two years ago, we have embarked on the path of veteran players in movement and we started making draft picks and building our future. "

The New York Islanders, who lost John Tavares to Toronto on Sunday night, were heavily involved in the Sabers negotiations Sunday evening before that the deal with St. Louis is broken by Pierre LeBrun of TSN and Elliott Friedman of Sportsnet

No salary was withheld and the Blues paid the signing bonus of $ 7.5 million $ Buffalo should have paid that if O & # 39; Reilly was traded after midnight. O & # 39; Reilly realizes a profit capped at $ 7.5 million for the next five years under the Sept. deal years of $ 52.5 million that he signed with Buffalo in 201 5 after being acquired in a major business with Colorado.

Louis's first-round pick in 2016. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound player has three goals and six badists for the Blues in 41 games this season and eight goals and 10 badists in the 30 games for San Antonio of the LAH.

Berglund, 30, was St. Louis' number one pick in 2006 and has played 694 NHL games with the Blues in the last 10 seasons. He has 17 goals and 26 points in 57 games last season and has surpbaded 20 goals four times in his career with a career-high 23 in 2016-1717.

Sobotka, 30, was Boston's fourth pick He scored 11 goals and 20 badists for St. Louis last season after returning from three seasons in the KHL. He was a chief agitator for the Bruins against the Sabers in Boston's first-round playoff victory at Buffalo in 2010.

Berglund is signed for the next four years with a cap of $ 3.85 million . Sobotka is signed for the next two years at $ 3.5 million. Thompson is on his entry-level contract and will have a cap of $ 925,000 over the next two years

O'Reilly had 21 goals and 39 badists in 2015-16 and followed with 20 goals and 35 badists in 2016- 17. He set career highs in Buffalo last year with 24 goals and 61 points and set an NHL record for face-to-face wins over the weekend. a season. But his two-way game suffered tremendously as his plus-minus rating jumped minus -1 to a worst-23 career in a Buffalo team that finished last in the NHL with just 62 points.

O'Reilly: "The interest in Ryan is not at all surprising"

O. Reilly won the Lady Byng Trophy for his gentleman's game with the Colorado Avalanche in 2014. He was a finalist for the award last month after have had a minor penalty all season. See O 'Reilly's career statistics here.

But the beginning of the end for O & # 39; Reilly in Buffalo came immediately after the season. On the day of locker cleaning at KeyBank Center, he made big news on both sides of the border and stunned the badembled media members of West New York when he quietly revealed the impact of these last three years. "We are stuck in this state of mind to be fair to lose," said O. Reilly that day. "I feel it too, I think that I really snuck in during the year, I lost myself a lot, I just pbaded, just to be right. We won hockey and slipped into all our games.

"It's disappointing. It's sad. I feel throughout the year having lost the love of the game many times. You have to go back because I eat myself and I eat others too.

O 'Reilly was far from over in describing the feeling of another non-eliminating season in Buffalo.

"I just hated losing, and just with all that went on, I just had nowhere to go," he says "It was just a bit," he said. Oh, it's good.As long as I did some things well, everything is fine. "

" That's how I fell for love, and I miss it, I want to go back to myself. "

O" Reilly got back on the ice at the World Championships in Denmark, where he was once again one of the key players in the team. Canada O. Reilly won a gold medal for Canada in 2017 and also won the World Cup in 2016.

Speaking to TSN in May, O & # 39; Reilly insisted on the that he did not want to be traded by the Sabers and said his comments in April. "

" I want to change, I want to be in Buffalo, I love it, "he said "Obviously, we will have the first choice, which will be huge, but, gosh, c & # 39; is a great city and I want to be there and I want to win Yeah, I was just honest, and I feel like I have to "

Ryan O 'Reilly of Sabers on Buffalo:" I want to be there and I want to win "

O. Reilly was invited at close range by TSN's animator, Darren Dreger, if he could regain the love of the game at Buffalo.

"The love of the game is something staple," said O & # 39; Reilly. "That's why we're there, not doing it and sort of getting out of it is one of the reasons I did not succeed." When I love the game, it's when I'm competitive. No matter who I'm lining up, I'm going to beat that guy. And sometimes, yes, I lost that. That's why I was not doing my best to do what I needed to do for the team. It must change, and I plan to change it.

The commercial side of the match has always been a factor in O. Reilly's career in the NHL, which began when he was selected by the Erie Otters in 2009. The same team of the Ontario Hockey League that produced Connor McDavid six years later.

After the expiry of his entry-level contract, O & # 39; Reilly held up before the start of the 2013 lockout season. Pat Morris drafted an offer card The Avalanche matched his average salary from $ 880,000 to $ 5 million.

O & # 39; Reilly had his best NHL season in 2013-14 with 28 goals and 64 badists. Colorado lost a seven-game match in Minnesota in the only playoff series of O'Reilly's career over the past nine years.

O. Reilly's production dropped the following season to 17 goals and 55 points and his frustration grew on his Colorado situation. Gabriel Landeskog will be their captain and will lead O & # 39; Reilly to arbitration before both parties reach a $ 12 million deal over two years.

After the first year, O & # 39; Reilly reportedly claimed $ 64 million over eight years. The Sabers chief executive, Tim Murray, has coveted O & # 39; Reilly and sued for more than a year before finally acquiring it on June 26, 2015, in Sunrise, Florida, less than half an hour before Jack Eichel with choice number two just after Edmonton chose McDavid

Inside the Sabers: The odd Ryan O'Reilly affair

The Sabers immediately proposed an extension and signed O. Reilly for the seven-year contract of $ 52.5 million a week later. They even signed with his older brother, Cal, a $ 700,000 contract to play in Rochester

Ryan O'Reilly was the biggest contract ever awarded to a Saber until Jack Eichel sign its extension of $ 80 million last October. The Eichel contract has just come into force on July 1st.

A few days after signing his contract, O. Reilly took a darker turn when he was arrested in Lucan, Ontario, for impaired driving and escape from an accident . O'Reilly allegedly drove his vintage Chevrolet pickup truck into the Tim Hortons cafe shortly after 4 am and was reportedly stopped about a mile away while he was sitting on a sidewalk.

In his first interviews in Buffalo in September 2015, O & # 39; Reilly is excused for his indiscretions and said that they had caused him a lot of embarrbadment. On the ice, meanwhile, he quickly became a key force in the locker room since he often gave skill sessions to young players like Eichel and Sam Reinhart after the completion of the training.

The Sabers go from 54 points in 2014-15 to 81 next year in the first year of Eichel and O & # 39; Reilly with the club. Meanwhile, the case of O & # 39; Reilly dragged on for nearly a year before being acquitted of charges in July 2016.

O & # 39; Reilly did not had no other problem off ice during his career in Buffalo.