Search the Community

Let's just do this. Everything to do with Ryan freaking O'Reilly. His likes, his dislikes, favorite colors, boxers or briefs, ALL THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only year ROR has broken the 20g plateau was last year. Last year his shot% was .37 above where it normally sits meaning that statistically he isn't a 20+ goal scorer. While his defensive skills are as far as takeaways are impressive, he is averaging 88 a year. So just a touch over 1 per game. His giveaways sit at 30 on average which means he is very sound defensively but at what point do these extra defensive skills become superfluous? How often is 1 takeaway a game making the difference? Judging by the way hockey works probably not as much as we would like. If we look at other stats I can see that he starts just over 50% of the time in the defensive zone and for the last 2 years has faced above average competition. Now looking at his Corsi and Fenqick we can see that mathematically ROR on the ice his team has the puck only 50% of the time so again we are in the middle. Now I can tell you that ROR is contributing positively to the possession numbers. So far we can all agree Defensively ROR is a very good player. Now looking once again at the offense his usage suggests he spends almost no time on the PP. His pp shots and such are very low, 49 total attempted PP for the entire season. Why? Well for one if you watch Ryan O'Reilly his shot is average. He does get the shot through about 62% of the time which is decent. Just to show what I mean and so you have a bench mark for that, Zemgus is at about 61% of shots getting through. So ROR is again doing okay but not great. If we look at his PK stuff, the outlier year for Sh% is also the outlier year for his good PK stuff. This past year his TOI for pk ice time was only 156.9minutes so this again isn't what he was getting used most. Most of his time is 5v5 which is fine. He seems to handle his minutes well and again is right in the middle. Now if you want we could talk about now stats stuff like his on ice vision, stickhandling, hockey IQ. Sadly it must be mentioned somewhat. His on ice vision is above NHL average and he has a decent pass. His stickhandling IMPO is just okay. He is a direct kind of guy. One thing you will notice is ROR makes safe plays. He in some ways is like Samson in that regard although I think in the end Sammy is smarter. His skating stride is good but he is a direct skater and you don't see the array of cuts and slashes you might want for a top 3 forward. That said he is very strong on his skates. He is good down low at digging the puck out. He tends to pass first but I feel like there is a lack of creativity there. I feel like that's enough. It won't prove my point to you and that's fine because we both have decided, but when I look at O'Reilly whether that is during the game or his advanced stats his defensive play if very sound. It is quite good. His offensive play is very lackluster. In truth ROR is like a better defensive version of Pommers but with less offense. If I am going to tie up 8mil, which in todays lack of scoring NHL for a defensive player is questionble, then I have committed that money to someone who at heart is really a nice 2nd line defensive player that will give you 15-20goals a season and around 35a. Toews, Kane, Ovechkin, Malkin, Subban, Crosby, Perry, Lundqvist, Giroux, Staal, Getzlaf, Kessel, }{ Weber, Nash, Suter, Parise, Datsyuk, Spezza, Stamkos. There is your list of players making 7.5mil or more. Kessel and up make 8mil or more. Ryan O'Reilly IMPO doesn't belong in that group because he doesn't bring enough to the table on the offensive side to warrant it. Now you have your answer, well basically, this was superfluous because I am not going to convince you Tank and you aren't going to convince me. I don't think ROR should make more then 7mil and truthfully I would give him 6.5 and not a penny more. Of course I think you are accurate with how much he will ask for and some team will pay it, but that team will be a big market because I honestly believe that is where he wants to go.

I know there is a endless amount of posters saying they want ROR moved this summer. After his post-season rant while cleaning out his locker after yet another disappointing year, ROR made it clear he was down in the dumps and frustrated with the whole situation here in Sabreland. Before we all jump the gun and run the guy out of town, it is also very important top realize just what he brings to the table every night. We have already said goodbye to Evander kane and ran him out of town, convinced he was the whole problem within the dressing room and a real "cancer". It does not appear the dressing room improved any after Kane's departure. I think we were led to believe and sold on a notion that moving Kane would fix all that was wrong within his team's locker room. Some are now saying the same about Ryan O'Reilly. ROR led the league in faceoffs and wins.That in itself is a great achievement and something (don't laugh) that is vital and essential come playoff time. I know you are all laughing but I have a hunch this team just may be ready to make the jump and maybe somehow make it to the big dance next season. ROR would be a absolute stud in playoff hockey. We ran Kane out of town and lets face it, he is a very good hockey player. He too is already proving a stud in playoff hockey (2 big goals last night in game one for SJ).. Now we are set to run another very good player out of town.ROR plays game in and game out against the other team's top line. He (and his linemates that usually include Okpsoso) get the honor of facing the other team's top forwards every night. While there are many reasons this team loses game after game, surprisingly the team constantly shuts down the other team's top players. That is directly due to ROR and linemates playing good, sound defensive hockey. The Leafs lost to the B's last night because they had no one to shut down the Bruins big guns, yet when the Sabres play theB's, we have good success against them because ROR shuts down the top players from the B's (or any other team for that matter). In the end, I wonder if we are not jumping too quick to judgement and running ROR out of town only because we are frustrated just like him, ironically enough. While the return would no doubt be substantial and very tempting, I also think we'd end up doing what we are doing about Evander Kane which of course is lamenting losing a very good hockey player. Is there really any answer in continually trading your best players? Maybe we are too quick to blame the wrong guys. jack does what he can while playing with average wingers and ROR (and linemates) are asked to play night after night against the top players in the NHL and do so with pride and skill, often with very good results. Losing ROR would leave a huge whole down the middle. Who then goes against the top forwards for the other teams? Jack? A young and unproved Middlestat? If we find jack sometimes frustrated now imagine how he'd be having to line up night after night against the other team's top players?ROR performs a thankless job and does it very well. we would be, I think, crazy to trade him and force jack to play against the other team's top forwards.