Kyle Dubas could be preparing to extend Ryan O'Reilly
Late last night, Kyle Dubas went big and shocked the hockey world by going "all in". He managed to acquire Ryan O'Reilly (50% retained) and Noel Acciari from St. Louis with a little help from Minnesota, who also retained some salary on O'Reilly.
The Leafs traded a lot of draft capital to complete the deal, sending their own 2023 first round pick, a third round pick (OTT) as well as a 2024 second round pick to St. Louis along with Adam Gaudette and Mikhail Abramov. The Leafs also sent a 2025 4th round pick to Minnesota for helping to broker the deal and make the money work.
Given that this trade goes against everything Kyle Dubas said a couple of weeks ago about giving up a first round pick for a rental, could there be an extension in the works for O'Reilly and/or Acciari already? It's quite possible, and if not, there is a strong possibility there will be extension talks down the line. O'Reilly is a Toronto kid and could follow in the footsteps of Mark Giordano, who signed a 2-year sweetheart extension this past summer.
O'Reilly wouldn't come nearly as cheap as Gio, but could agree to sign for less than the $7.5M cap hit that he's carried since 2016-17. He just turned 32, so he has some quality hockey years left. Would he have any interest in playing out the rest of his career as a Leaf? Could something like 5 years at $4.5M per season make sense for O'Reilly to be able to play at home and pursue multiple Stanley Cups? It's certainly possible. Stranger things have happened.
With Alexander Kerfoot a pending UFA and making $3.5M this year, imagine replacing Kerfoot on the roster with O'Reilly for $4.5M - a slight increase of just $1M per season. Imagine the extra value you'd get out of that additional $1M. It's certainly something worth thinking about.
| POLL | ||
18 FEVRIER | 311 ANSWERS Kyle Dubas could be preparing to extend Ryan O'Reilly Will the Leafs extend Ryan O'Reilly? | ||
| Yes | 273 | 87.8 % |
| No | 38 | 12.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
