Why is Ryan O’Reilly being treated as a player that has trade protection, and will a trade go down to the wire?
Anthony DiMarco of Daily Faceoff was on TSN Radio in Montreal and was talking about a Ryan O’Reilly trade out of Nashville. When will it happen, and why is he being treated as a player with trade protection when, in fact, he doesn’t?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “Is he the kind of guy that would go, you think would go sooner or at the deadline for Nashville, if it came to it for O’Reilly?”
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Anthony DiMarco: “Well, here’s the thing. It’s twofold. One, you have to finally evaluate whether or not Nashville is ready to fully commit to selling. Second is that, even though Ryan O’Reilly does not have trade protection, all that we’ve heard is that they will operate like he does have trade protection.
So if everything is in the hands of Ryan O’Reilly, and he wants to be picky with his destination, maybe this will come right down to the wire, because at the very least, it seems like Barry Trotz wants to be respectful to his players, specifically a veteran like Ryan O’Reilly, who signed a four-year contract there in 2023.
So like, I mean, I do think there’ll be a list of suitors that would be in the hunt for a guy like O’Reilly. We mentioned the New Jersey Devils. We mentioned the Montreal Canadiens. If they somehow got back into the playoff race, maybe a return to Toronto. Maybe a return to Colorado, where it all began for Ryan O’Reilly 15 years ago.
But I think that just because of the uniqueness of that situation, it would probably be, probably happen close to the deadline.”
Hotst: “Isn’t that a little silly?”
DiMarco: “What is?”
Host: “Not just trade him. Like, why didn’t they just give him trade protection then if they’re gonna treat him like he has it like? I really don’t get that. If you’re Barry Trotz, you’re not doing everything you can in your power to make your team as good as possible. You’re limiting yourself. I find it silly.”
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DiMarco: “Guys, if I’m Barry Trotz, I don’t do anything that Nashville has done over the last 18 months. But I mean, we’re talking about Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators, and I don’t want to slam, I don’t want to kick rocks at anyone. I think there are a lot of smart people in that organization.
Like Barry Trotz literally said this at some point last season, that he played like PlayStation when he signed all those players in 2024. Your general manager just openly admitted that he got like trigger happy and thought he was playing EA Sports and took nothing into account in terms of roster construction.
So, I mean, like, yeah, you’re absolutely right, Mitch. He shouldn’t be treating Ryan O’Reilly that he has trade protection if he doesn’t, in fact, have trade protection. But unfortunately, given the circumstance, I mean, they’re going to operate as such, and they’ve been operating a very bizarre fashion since Trotz took over.”
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