With the Buffalo Sabres at the bottom of the standings, you can expect that general manager Jason Botterill plans to shake things up. However, where do you start? The obvious answer is start looking at players who don’t want to be there and it looks like center Ryan O’Reilly has made it clear he wants out of Buffalo, according to the Buffalo News’ Jon Vogl.
The talented 27-year-old shocked a lot of people during his exit interview when he revealed that he was fine with losing and has started to lose his love for the game. Vogl writes that it isn’t just a coincidence that O’Reilly admitted these things on his way out the door for another offseason. He believes O’Reilly and his agent have orchestrated this to force his way out of Buffalo as he and his agent have had a major role in dictating every stage of his pro career, from his entry-level deal to his restricted free agent years to his trade from Colorado.
While his numbers are good as the center has scored 65 goals and 111 assists in three years in Buffalo, a trade would still likely to be difficult as he has five more years on his contract at $7.5MM. Even with the salary cap likely to go up, that’s a big contract that many playoff teams couldn’t afford unless the team intends to retain salary, which they’d likely prefer not to do.
“The sense that I’ve been given from the management in Buffalo, is yeah of course he’s going to listen on Ryan O’Reilly,” TSN’s Darren Dreger said on WGR Friday. “But it would take an absolute sweetheart deal for the Buffalo Sabres to consider. In saying that, he’s a hell of a player. On pretty much every team in the league he’s at least a #2 center isn’t he? There’s going to be a market for Ryan O’Reilly and Jason Botterill is going to have some tough decisions specific to O’Reilly. Teams who need centers will do whatever they need to do to get in that conversation…Botterill will be big game hunting.”
Throw in the fact that Botterill will be looking for a big payday after finding himself on the losing end of the deal when he traded away forward Evander Kane to the San Jose Sharks for much less than what he had hoped. So a trade partner might even be more difficult to find.
- Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News writes that besides O’Reilly, the team will likely also seriously look to trade defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, even suggesting he should find a real estate agent. Ristolainen is another player who puts up solid numbers, but seems to lack the leadership skills that Buffalo needs to take that next step. The 23-year-old blueliner had six goals and 35 assists this year.
- Harrington also admits the team will attempt to trade goaltender Robin Lehner, but after a difficult season in which he had just 14 wins and a 3.01 GAA, the team might have trouble moving him. The good news is Lehner does not require surgery on his hip injury, which should make him a little easier to move. Harrington believes that the team may choose to let him walk as a restricted free agent if the team fails to find a trade partner, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.
I’m sure the Canadiens would love to land him but they don’t have the assets to get a deal done IMO. I imagine Buffalo is looking for high end picks and prospects in return and the Habs are probably starting to rebuild, themselves so this doesn’t really make sense.
The Canadiens have the assets to get it done(Poehling, Juulsen, Mete, Lindgren, possible top 5 pick, four 2nd’s, etc). The question is should they overpay to do so? Based on what Dreger said, it seems Botterill would want an overpayment to deal ROR. I like ROR but I wouldn’t go completely out of my way to get him. If Botterill is fairly reasonable on an asking price, I could see the Habs and Sabres working out a deal pretty quickly.
The Canadians have no reason to be sending out assets for players either. They need to rebuild, not send valuable assets away
The Canadiens roster is already one of the youngest in the league(3rd or 4th youngest IIRC). This narrative that they need to rebuild is just not correct. They only have 6 players 30 or older(7 if you want to include Hemsky who barely played). Of those 6, only Price, Weber and Petry play critical roles on the team. One of Benn and Schlemko will probably be moved at the draft while Niemi probably earned a 1 year extension but could still be let go.
Does the Habs roster need a shake up? Absolutely. Do they need a full on rebuild? Absolutely not. Literally 75% of the Canadiens issues can be fixed by adding a couple of quality centres, adding a puck moving LD and firing/replacing JJ Daigneault as the D and PK coach. The rest of their issues can be fixed through better health and a rebound in play by Price.
To trade Ristolaine would be asinine. He is one of the few stable pieces of the Sabres so say this is a desire is foolish. He and Eichel are the foundation of the future.