Golden Knights Trade Talk

Golden Knights Could Swing Big And Go After O’Reilly On Trade Market

The Vegas Golden Knights are no stranger to taking key members of the St. Louis Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup Championship team. Alex Pietrangelo is…

Published

1 year ago

January 25, 2023

Vegas Hockey Now

The Vegas Golden Knights are no stranger to taking key members of the St. Louis Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup Championship team. Alex Pietrangelo is already in his third year as a Golden Knight, and fans have speculated about a Vladamir Tarasenko for a while now.

But yesterday, on TSN's Insider Trading, analyst Darren Dreger stated that the Blues are listening to offers on captain Ryan O'Reilly and that he is "in play" for the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline. Could the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner be a good fit for the VGK?

Ryan O'Reilly Overview

Former Erie Otter Ryan O'Reilly has had a very successful 14-year NHL career with a Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe, Lady Byng, and Frank J Selke Trophy all to his name. But as the St. Louis Blues continue to regress from their 2019 selves, they could miss the playoffs this season for the first time since _.

"The Blues have reached the point in the regular season where they want to gauge the price around the National Hockey League for the star pending unrestricted free agent forward (O'Reilly)… The St. Louis Blues don't know if they are willing yet to go all-in," said Dreger on Insider Trading.

The Blues are currently 6th in the Central Division with a 23-22-3 record for 49 points. They have seen key players Tarasenko, Torey Krug, and even O'Reilly himself get injured this season. O'Reilly is currently out with a leg injury but is expected to recover before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 3rd.

Golden Knights Case

Always in the mix for quick fixes, O'Reilly could be on the Golden Knight's radar simply because their forward depth is not strong enough. All season, even when healthy, the VGK have struggled to find consistent play from their bottom six, especially their third line. Mark Stone's injury has only made things worse.

It's still guesswork to determine how long Stone will miss with his current injury. The VGK could be without a two-way Selke-level high-energy captain for a long time. But they could trade for one in O'Reilly to lessen the blow.

O'Reilly has played with not only Pietrangelo, but with Jack Eichel in the past, in their days with the Buffalo Sabres.

Managing the Cap

This is all reliant on the status of Stone, as it looks like all of Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud will return soon. O'Reilly carries a $7.5 million cap hit and is a pending unrestricted free agent at 31 years of age. A pure rental, he would be indeed.

In any potential move they make with O'Reilly, the Blues will likely have to retain his salary, which could get his cap hit down to $3.75 million. The Golden Knights currently have $1.2 million in available cap space. But that is with Zach Whitecloud on LTIR.

Moving some players back to the AHL gives the team $2.7 million in space, and putting Mark Stone on LTIR gets that number up to $12.2 million

Again, this all depends on the health of Stone.

Pricetag

He's a great player with a solid career, but O'Reilly has struggled to stay consistent this season, which could lessen his trade value. O'Reilly has 10 goals and six assists for 16 points in 37 games played. Still, the ask from the Blues appears to be reasonably high.

"The ask for Ryan O'Reilly will be similar to a player of his stature. You are talking about a draft pick and a prospect. The draft pick could be determined by the quality of the prospect. It is still early, but Ryan O'Reilly is officially in play," said Dreger.

The Golden Knights have their own first-round pick in every upcoming draft and also have prospects like Brendan Brisson and Zach Dean.