Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast on Thursday on the St. Louis Blues and pending unrestricted free agent forward Ryan O’Reilly.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“Well Doug Armstrong met with the media on Wednesday and he didn’t give a lot away. That is kind of typical of him. I don’t anybody would have expected it to be any other way.
I do think they will take a run at Ryan O’Reilly. What I don’t know is, Ryan O’Reilly is going to be 32. Now, the one thing about Ryan O’Reilly is, he takes care of himself. It’s going to be interesting.
It’s very clear that the Blues said at this point in time, their priorities were Thomas and Kyrou before O’Reilly. They got those deals done.
The last time the Blue had a major free agent cornerstone player, he ended up in Vegas, Pietrangelo. So Armstrong’s not afraid to grind. He’s represented by Newport, O’Reilly, which is the same organization or agency that had Pietrangelo, so they’ll expect a grind.
I think it’s going to be a fascinating negotiation because he’s still a great player, it’s just the age is, it’s a bigger number. But, I think St. Louis will take a run at him to see if they can avoid the kind of, the situation it played out with Pietrangelo.
We’ll see. The big one here is going to be term. You know, St. Louis was very careful with David Perron, who was older than O’Reilly but they were not willing to do a ton of term there. So I think that’s the biggest question here, is what term are they willing to do for O’Reilly and will he consider that acceptable?
Marek: “What does the Nazem Kadri deal, if anything, do to a Ryan O’Reilly negotiation?”
Friedman: “I don’t know if I can see St. Louis doing that.”
Marek: “If you’re Ryan O’Reilly.”
Friedman: “Look, if Ryan O’Reilly has a great year this year, and there’s no reason to assume he won’t, he’s going to say, that’s my market.”