Trade: Ryan O'Reilly to St Louis Blues

[TheAud]

10 hours ago, Brawndo said:

 

This is well done. Good job by his agent. 

[Eleven]

Everyone's gotta be a cynic...

[Radar]

Just dawned on me. ROR was heavily criticized for "losing his love for the game " by fans who seem to have lost their love of the Sabres. Some even saying they stopped watching games. Guess I sort of accept both parties on this. Can't criticise either.

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 hours ago, Sakman said:

This is well done. Good job by his agent. 

Yep

[Weave]

2 hours ago, Radar said:

Just dawned on me. ROR was heavily criticized for "losing his love for the game " by fans who seem to have lost their love of the Sabres. Some even saying they stopped watching games. Guess I sort of accept both parties on this. Can't criticise either.

 

Yup. It was an unfair criticism IMO.

[Randall Flagg]

10 minutes ago, Weave said:

 

Yup. It was an unfair criticism IMO.

Because it didn't affect his on-ice effort. 

There are times that I absolutely hate physics, it's part of anything that anyone does. He pushed through as we all do when times are tough. 

Even at the time of the quote, I couldn't imagine a less-controversial thing getting as much play as that did.

[Hoss]

I never had an issue with ROR’s comment. I hope they all lost something throughout years of losing. I hope all of them (including ROR in STL) find the desire to recapture what they’ve lost.

I liked ROR and still don’t have an issue with them trading him (I’m glad they did because something serious had to change).

[pi2000]

2 hours ago, Hoss said:

I never had an issue with ROR’s comment. I hope they all lost something throughout years of losing. I hope all of them (including ROR in STL) find the desire to recapture what they’ve lost.

I liked ROR and still don’t have an issue with them trading him (I’m glad they did because something serious had to change).

Yeah something had to change.

Still think it's dumb that that "something" that had to change was trading arguably their best all-around player while guys who have contributed absolutely zero, Girgensons, Larsson, Bogosian, etc.. are still Buffalo Sabre's.

[Thorner]

5 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Because it didn't affect his on-ice effort. 

There are times that I absolutely hate physics, it's part of anything that anyone does. He pushed through as we all do when times are tough. 

Even at the time of the quote, I couldn't imagine a less-controversial thing getting as much play as that did.

We must also consider that there's a chance those were precisely chosen words for a specific purpose; some have speculated a sort of trade-request motive. Speculation, but would that change things at all?

Edited July 14, 2018 by Thorny

[Hoss]

1 hour ago, pi2000 said:

Yeah something had to change.

Still think it's dumb that that "something" that had to change was trading arguably their best all-around player while guys who have contributed absolutely zero, Girgensons, Larsson, Bogosian, etc.. are still Buffalo Sabre's.

Eichel is better than O'Reilly. I don't think it's close.

[Weave]

53 minutes ago, Hoss said:

Eichel is better than O'Reilly. I don't think it's close.

Better in terms of skill, yes.  But ROR still took the hard minutes and the key faceoffs and shined doing it.  We can only hope that someday Jack does the same.

[JJFIVEOH]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

Better in terms of skill, yes.  But ROR still took the hard minutes and the key faceoffs and shined doing it.  We can only hope that someday Jack does the same.

I have to agree with you on that. Eichel is a much better offensemen, but O'Reilly is much better on faceoffs, much better defensively, and he rarely goes in scoring slumps who can consistently finish 2nd or 3rd in points on the team. For a player who is so well-rounded, his contract was a steal. 

I hope he asked for a trade, it would make me feel better about the deal.  

6 hours ago, Hoss said:

I never had an issue with ROR’s comment. I hope they all lost something throughout years of losing. I hope all of them (including ROR in STL) find the desire to recapture what they’ve lost.

I liked ROR and still don’t have an issue with them trading him (I’m glad they did because something serious had to change).

You and I finally agree on something. I'm sure every player in that locker room felt the same way........... O'Reilly just had the balls to say it. Fans complain because players have turned into robots when doing interviews, but many complained when he spoke his mind. One of those lose-lose situations. 

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, Weave said:

Better in terms of skill, yes.  But ROR still took the hard minutes and the key faceoffs and shined doing it.  We can only hope that someday Jack does the same.

I'd just question if anyone "shined" at anything over the last few years. 

[JJFIVEOH]

52 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

I'd just question if anyone "shined" at anything over the last few years. 

In reality, he didn't shine. But relatively speaking he did. With a team that had so little heart and the same level of talent, he did "shine". 

On a good team, I think O'Reilly has the potential to be a borderline elite player. It's tough to find good all-around players nowadays. 

I hate to lose him, but he deserves better. I thought he should have been the captain. 

[erickompositör72]

7 hours ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I thought he should have been the captain. 

Captains don't lose passion

...or at least, they don't admit it

Edited July 15, 2018 by erickompositör72

[Scottysabres]

Well at least he's St. Louis problem now. If he looses heart and passion for the game they can deal with it.

While I believe St. Louis will be a bubble playoff team this coming season, I don't see them as true cup contenders. I am hoping they fall flat and end up with the 11th spot in next years draft ?

[TrueBlueGED]

15 hours ago, Weave said:

Better in terms of skill, yes.  But ROR still took the hard minutes and the key faceoffs and shined doing it.  We can only hope that someday Jack does the same.

I absolutely want Jack to get better (dramatically, so) defensively...but I don't want him ever being tasked with ROR"s minutes. It would be a total waste of his offensive abilities. I'm sure Quenneville would have liked Kane to be better defensively, too, but I doubt he'd have given him Hossa's minutes if it happened.

13 hours ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I have to agree with you on that. Eichel is a much better offensemen, but O'Reilly is much better on faceoffs, much better defensively, and he rarely goes in scoring slumps who can consistently finish 2nd or 3rd in points on the team. For a player who is so well-rounded, his contract was a steal. 

I hope he asked for a trade, it would make me feel better about the deal.  

You and I finally agree on something. I'm sure every player in that locker room felt the same way........... O'Reilly just had the balls to say it. Fans complain because players have turned into robots when doing interviews, but many complained when he spoke his mind. One of those lose-lose situations. 

Fans want athletes to say things they agree with, full stop. 

[WildCard]

1 hour ago, TrueBlueGED said:

I absolutely want Jack to get better (dramatically, so) defensively...but I don't want him ever being tasked with ROR"s minutes. It would be a total waste of his offensive abilities. I'm sure Quenneville would have liked Kane to be better defensively, too, but I doubt he'd have given him Hossa's minutes if it happened.

Fans want athletes to say things they agree with, full stop. 

I wish I could like this post twice. Agree 100%

[erickompositör72]

15 hours ago, JJFIVEOH said:

O'Reilly just had the balls to say it. Fans complain because players have turned into robots when doing interviews, but many complained when he spoke his mind. One of those lose-lose situations. 

What you call "balls," I call character weakness. This is the NHL, not group therapy. A leader's job is to push through adversity and hold people accountable, but stay positive. It's hard to do- that's why true leaders are hard to come by.

O'Reilly fancies himself a leader. The feelings he had are understandable, but they should have stayed between him and his therapist.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, erickompositör72 said:

What you call "balls," I call character weakness. This is the NHL, not group therapy. A leader's job is to push through adversity and hold people accountable, but stay positive. It's hard to do- that's why true leaders are hard to come by.

O'Reilly fancies himself a leader. The feelings he had are understandable, but they should have stayed between him and his therapist.

2 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Fans want athletes to say things they agree with, full stop. 

 

[erickompositör72]

I swear I'm not playing dumb- I don't understand the relevance of that quote vis-a-vis my assessment

[Thorner]

3 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

I absolutely want Jack to get better (dramatically, so) defensively...but I don't want him ever being tasked with ROR"s minutes. It would be a total waste of his offensive abilities. I'm sure Quenneville would have liked Kane to be better defensively, too, but I doubt he'd have given him Hossa's minutes if it happened.

Fans want athletes to say things they agree with, full stop. 

Do any of the numbers gurus around here have data on the progression of Jack's defensive game last season?

To my eye his defense improved a fair bit from the years before, while still having a ways to go. 

[erickompositör72]

25 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Do any of the numbers gurus around here have data on the progression of Jack's defensive game last season?

To my eye his defense improved a fair bit from the years before, while still having a ways to go. 

I remember there being quite a bit of commentary on here about how much more Eichel was being forced to develop his defensive, 2-way center game (relative to his first 2 years). I remember all of us rejoicing at this, knowing he'd have to step up in this role while still producing offensively

If he is who we hope he is, he should take a big step forward in both aspects this season

Edited July 15, 2018 by erickompositör72

[LGR4GM]

I don't think ROR will ever be elite. He's never been that. He's 27. I just don't see that happening. 

[Hoss]

15 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I don't think ROR will ever be elite. He's never been that. He's 27. I just don't see that happening. 

Yup. He's 27. He can play basically the same game with St. Louis and it'll be good enough for them to improve, but he's not going to suddenly become something he's never been close to in his previous nine seasons.