With the departure of Mikhail Grigorenko to the KHL
for 3 years, the age old argument has been churned up again amongst hockey
experts, and Sabres fans on Twitter who claim to be hockey experts. The
argument? Who won the Ryan O’Reilly trade?
You begin to ponder this deep and complex question
when all of the sudden you hear a gust of wind outside. The room dims, and you
are left in darkness.
The ghost of Trade-mas past, who, under his long dark
hood looks a lot like Chris Drury, enters the room through a cracked open
window, and summons you to take an arduous journey through the passage of time.
The destination: June 26th, 2015. The streets look different, the
people, younger. You’re sitting on your couch, or maybe at the grocery store,
and you decide to check up on the information highway in which you get most of
your on demand sports news: Twitter. You slide up to refresh the feed, and
there it is, thrust upon you like a bolt of lightning. The wait is over, and
elation overwhelms you, brought on by the faint ting of remorse. Ryan O’Reilly,
the contract holdout and offer sheet signer, has been traded to the Buffalo
Sabres. Maybe you heard it from Adrian Dater. Maybe you heard it from Bob
McKenzie. You probably didn’t hear it from Mike Chambers, as is job title of
Avs beat writer is probably just something the head honchos at the Denver Post
put on his business card because “guy who tweets days old Avs news” didn’t really
look good on a business card. But it doesn’t matter, because one of the biggest
distractions in Avs history has been moved for a package of promising youngsters
and draft picks. You think to yourself “it’s time to climb out o the basement
and back into the playoffs!” Oh, so naïve. But nevertheless, it has been done.
Now, at this point, you may not have known much about JT Compher, but a quick
search would tell you that he was great in NCAA and has what hockey writers
with little vocabulary to describe prospects would call “upside”. You recognize
Nikita Zadarov as that big Russian D-man who can play physical; something the
Avs will need in the future, and of course you’ve heard of Grigorenko, the
talented prospect and high draft choice who didn’t quite find his grove in
Buffalo. A worthy project for Avs coaching staff that should be around for a
LONG time! Life is good in Avalanche territory.
All of the sudden, a wormhole appears and you are
thrown the Avs press room. This is even further into the past. What is going
on? Oh, it looks like the Avs have just made Gabriel Landeskog the new team
captain. You remember this press conference from the internet. But what you
didn’t remember seeing was a seething Ryan O’Reilly, watching the press
conference from around the corner, stabbing a sewing needle in what looks to be
a Gabe Landeskog voodoo doll. Did anyone else see that? Before you get a chance
to look around, you’re off and moving again with the ghost. The ghost takes you
to another location. Canada, but there’s no snow and igloos. This is strange,
its dark out. The sun is just starting to rise. You see an old newspaper
clipping announcing O’Reilly has signed a 7 year deal with the Sabres, paying
him $7.5M. Yikes you think to yourself. That is a lot of money for a player who
has never scored 65 points. You look at your watch, its around 4:00am and you’re
tired. There’s a Tom Hortons nearby and you want a coffee. Just as you are
about to cross the street, a green 1951 Chevy screams passed you and slams into
the building. A little frightened, you tell the ghost to take you somewhere
else.
You arrive in 2017, at the end of the regular season.
You are in the stands for the Sabres last game of the season and you grab the
stats sheet from your game program. Ryan O’Reilly only has 20 goals, and not
even 60 points. But that’s okay, because half the reason they brought him in
was for his defensive game. The ghost of trade-mas past slowly hands you his
Blackberry. This guy is from the past, you think as you look at the screen. The
screen shows team penalty kill statistics for the whole league, as well as
fancy stats. Oh, Buffalo is 25th in PK, and their fancy stats are at
the bottom of the league too. Wasn’t O’Reilly supposed to be a difference
maker? At least he only makes $7.5M against the cap. The Sabres won the trade. Right?
You ask the ghost to take you home. You’ve seen enough.
As the ghost of Trade-mas past drops you off at home
you start to feel a little silly for your optimism. Hindsight is 20/20 after
all. You hear a bang in the kitchen. Something has knocked over some dishes
drying in the sink. Or, if you’re in college, a can of Macaroni and Cheese off
the hotplate in your 1 room dorm. The culprit? The ghost of trade-mus present,
and he takes you on a whirlwind journey you’ll never forget. First stop:
Glendale Arizona. Why? Because that’s where Jamie McGinn is training. That’s
right, the other piece the Avs sent over in the trade only logged 63 games in
Buffalo before moving on. But the Sabres won the trade, because they got O’Reilly.
Right?
The ghost whisks you away to another present-day
location. You are in Joe Sakic’s office. He is on the phone with a player
agent, hoping to lock in his best young defenseman who showed a ton of promise,
and great hockey sense the previous year before getting injured. And this guy
can hit, just ask the Winnipeg Jets. The players, not the fans. The fans will
either say he is a dirty player, or they won’t know what you’re talking about
since no one actually goes to the games. On the table, you can see Sakic has a
development chart out, tracking all the prospects. You notice two names: AJ
Greer, and Cameron Morrison. As you read through the files, you can see
scouting data on Greer: Great hockey mind for offense, and sound in the
defensive zone. He can put up numbers on the scoreboard and contribute in all
other areas on the ice. Nice. You remember Greer playing a little last season,
giving the tired, bored, unmotivated roster a refreshing burst of energy. Your
eyes dart to Morrison’s report: Former Junior scorer that had a great first
year in NCAA. The guy can rack up the points. Not bad return for the Avs, you
think; especially since O’Reilly is the only remaining piece of Buffalo’s trade
pie. Oh, you remember something. Grigorenko signed in the KHL. Well that
stinks, because, at the time, the Avs really needed another forward. Or…was it
a defender they really needed for the future? Well, it doesn’t matter what they
needed, you think, because even if they Avs were just looking for forwards,
they got Greer and Morrison in the deal as well. And if it was D they needed,
they got Zadorov. All for O’Reilly and McGinn. As you turn around to leave, you
notice a name on the whiteboard is Sakic’s office. It is a depth chart, and it
says JT Compher. You almost forgot that he was part of the trade too. But the
Avs got robbed. One of the worst trades ever. Right?
The ghost takes you to another GM’s office, but you
can’t recognize his face. He must be new. A quick search of the office tells you
that this is the headquarters for Buffalo GM Jason Boterill. Oh, that’s right.
The Sabres fired Tim Murray, the architect and genius that swindled the Avs out
of Ryan O’Reilly. Boterill is on the phone. He’s bragging about his most recent
trade, finally getting a decent defenseman in Marco Scandella, and getting
Jason Pominville back. Boterill talks about how the Sabres need another big
strong defenseman, as the last GM left him with terrible options and a bad
prospect pool for the back end. Boterill slams Tim Murray, ridiculing the awfull
contract he gave out to Dmitry Kulikov. “But Murray just needed a big Russian
Defenseman to eat minutes and use the body” you hear the voice on the other
line say. “He was lacking in that department, and got Kulikov out of
desperation”. You turn to the ghost and ask if Zadorov would have been a good
fit for the Sabres at this point. The ghost just looks on. Boterill is also
raving about getting Pomminville back. He says having the veteran leadership in
the room will be great for the Sabres. Uh oh, you say, as you think back to how
O’Reilly handled previous leadership situations. Boterill continues to brag
about his free agent signings. “Yeah Benoit Pouliot will help us will the
penalty kill, he can take defensive zone faceoffs if necessary, and he will be
great on the penalty kill!”. Wasn’t that what O’Reilly was brought in for?
Boterill continues “And adding Seth Griffith will give us a young guy with
potential. After we traded Ennis and Foligno, I needed a guy that could develop
into a potential scoring threat”. Your mind shifts to wondering what the Sabres
organizational depth would look like if they kept Compher and had drafted Greer
and Morrison. But the Sabres won the trade. Right?
The ghost of trade-mas present warps you back into
your kitchen and leaves without a word. You lay on your bed, dreary from the
travels. You find yourself eager for the visit of the ghost of trade-mas
future, but you know you will have to wait. Maybe it’s a journey you will need
to take day by day. You sit and wonder what it will look like. The Sabres haven’t
got much better in the offseason, not good for a team who hasn’t made the
playoffs since they robbed the Avs in a trade. The Sabres prospect pool isn’t
look to great either. Not good for a team that gave up many future assets when
they stole O’Reilly away from the Avs. The Sabres need to name a new captain.
What if it isn’t O’Reilly? Will he get ticked off again and cause riffs in the
dressing room? That won’t be good for a team with so many young players that
need guidance. The Sabres have a new coaching staff and new management. This
will be the Sabres’ 3rd coach since the trade. Not great for a team
who hasn’t made the playoffs with the $7.5M man.
Your mental energy shifts to the Avs. It’s great, you
think, that Avs even managed to get anybody for a disgruntled player who had
previously held out on them and was difintley not going to sign a new deal in
free agency. And to get so much return for a player in that situation isn’t so
bad. You lay your head down on the pillow and wonder, in 5 years, when Compher,
Greer, and maybe even Morrison, are still in the midst of RFA contracts, where
will O’Reilly sign in the UFA period? Will Buffalo be able to get him back?
Will he be already gone? As you doze off, you think about how great it is that
the Avs have all these talented assets that will be with the team for a long
time going forward, and all they had to do was trade a guy who didn’t want to
be here, and who would not have re-signed anyways. But the Sabres won the
trade. Right?
