Why is Ryan O’Reilly being treated as a trade protected player and will a trade lead to failure?
Daily Faceoff’s Anthony DiMarco was on TSN Radio in Montreal talking about a Ryan O’Reilly trade out of Nashville. When will this happen, and why is he being treated as a trade protection player when in fact he is not?
NHLRumors.com Transcripts
Host: “Is he the kind of guy who, do you think, would go to Nashville sooner or at the deadline, if it came down to it for O’Reilly?”
NHL Rumors: Predators scouting the Canadiens, the Jets and the Canucks
Anthony DiMarco: “Well, here’s the thing. It’s twofold. First, you ultimately have to evaluate whether or not Nashville is ready to fully commit to the sale. Second is that even though Ryan O’Reilly doesn’t have trade protection, all we’ve heard is that they’ll operate as if he does have trade protection.
So if everything is in Ryan O’Reilly’s hands, and he wants to be picky about where he goes, maybe this comes down to the wire, because at the very least it seems like Barry Trotz wants to be respectful to his players, especially a veteran like Ryan O’Reilly, who signed a four-year deal there in 2023.
So I mean, I really think there’s going to be a list of suitors who would be on the hunt for a guy like O’Reilly. We mentioned the New Jersey Devils. We mentioned the Montreal Canadiens. If they somehow found themselves back in the playoff race, maybe a return to Toronto. Perhaps a return to Colorado, where it all started for Ryan O’Reilly fifteen years ago.
But I think just because of the uniqueness of that situation, it would probably happen right before the deadline.”
Hotst: “Isn’t that a bit stupid?”
DiMarco: “What is?”
Host: “Not just trade him. Why didn’t they just give him trade protection if they’re going to treat him the way he is? I really don’t understand that. When you’re Barry Trotz, you don’t do everything you can to make your team the best it can be. You limit yourself. I think it’s stupid.”
NHL Rumors: Teams Needing to Sell, and Ryan O’Reilly
DiMarco: “Guys, if I’m Barry Trotz, I’m not doing anything that Nashville has done in the last 18 months. But I mean, we’re talking about Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators, and I don’t want to hit, I don’t want to kick stones at anybody. I think there’s a lot of smart people in that organization.”
As Barry Trotz literally said at some point last season, he was playing like PlayStation when he signed all those players in 2024. Your general manager just openly admitted that he got some kind of trigger happy and thought he was playing EA Sports and didn’t take the roster composition into account.
So I mean, yeah, you’re absolutely right, Mitch. He shouldn’t be treating Ryan O’Reilly like he has trade protection when in fact he has no trade protection. But unfortunately, given the circumstances, I mean, they’re going to operate as such, and they’ve been operating in a very bizarre way since Trotz took over.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Rumors overviews and hot topics from around the league. We also post some stuff Instagram.
#Ryan #OReilly #traded #deadline