Buffalo Sabres trade Ryan O’ Reilly to the St. Louis Blues for a big return
Buffalo Sabres send center Ryan O’ Reilly to the St. Louis Blues for a major return including picks, prospect and players.
It was no surprise the Buffalo Sabres were moving Ryan O’ Reilly. All offseason he was in the middle of trade rumors. The St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens were the teams he was linked to the most. St. Louis finally put together a package that made sense for general manager Jason Botterill.
Trade talks were heavy around the draft but when no deal came together all focus shifted to July 1. O’Reilly was due a $7.5 million signing bonus at the end of the night.
It was worth the wait as the Sabres got top prospect Tage Thompson, Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka in return. On top of the players, Buffalo also received a 2019 first round pick and 2021 second round draft pick.
O’ Reilly is one of the top two-way centers in the game. He is good in his own zone, great at winning faceoffs and even put up 61 points. The Sabres were going to need a big return to ship out O’ Reilly and that got just that. Two NHL veterans in Sobotka and Berglund who fill the team’s immediate needs on the wings.
Thompson, a minor league prospect, will be the deciding factor in this trade. If he can become an NHL regular soon and use his frame to become an effective power forward the trade will look even better for Buffalo.
TRADE: We've acquired forwards Tage Thompson, Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka, a 1st-round pick in 2019, and a 2nd-round pick in 2021 in exchange for Ryan O’Reilly. pic.twitter.com/I84OOvhCFP
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) July 2, 2018
The Blues gave up a lot of pieces but they did not really get any worse. The addition of O’ Reilly outweighs the loss of Berglund and Sobotka. It made the Blues better in the middle of the ice which was an area of weakness after trading Paul Stastny. Bringing in Tyler Bozak will also help. The Blues have a lot of talent up front in terms of prospects. Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Klim Kostin are close to making the jump making Thompson expendable.
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Both teams were able to address their needs in this trade. The Blues got better at center while the Sabres got better on the wings. The real winner won’t be known until the draft picks are spent and the development of Tage Thompson fully takes place.