Ryan O'Reilly: Take Your High Demands And Greedy Big Ego And Hit The Road

Everyone else has seemed to weigh in on the O’Reilly situation, so it’s our turn.

If you get the Sportsnet channel (Canadian) or have access to Youtube (Everywhere, probably the moon by now.) then you can listen to ROR’s agent Pat Morris talk about the contract situation. Here is the video. ROR talk starts at 6:06

Let’s take some quotes out of this piece. “no player has been “arbed” for a pay cut of his(ROR) stature”

His stature? The guy is an NHLer of 5 seasons.  In those 5 seasons he has averaged well below 20 goals a year. Yea he is great defensively, but don’t try to sell him for an all out superstar. He isn’t Zach Parise. He isn’t Patrick Kane. He isn’t Anze Kopitar. If O’Reilly thinks he deserves to be on the pedestal he made for himself, then he is dreaming.

“Ryan would like to stay in Colorado, at the same time a long term deal has not been worked out”

Because the Avs don’t want to give this guy a 45 million dollar deal  over 7 years. Rightfully so.

“Ryan is unrestricted in two years, given the model now where Colorado has “arbed” him, short term looks like it’s the future for Ryan."

This is pretty much saying “we’re offended by the Avs, and we want to go elsewhere once O’Reilly is a UFA”. If that’s the case, then O’Reilly and his agent can shove it. If the guy is only passionate and in it if the right dollar amount gets written on a check, then he isn’t a true hockey player. He shows heart on the ice and in the dressing room, but it’s nice to know now that it was all because of how much the Avs got snaked into paying him.

When asked by Doug MacLean if they’d take 2 years arbitration deal and walk, Pat Morris pussy footed around the question.

“We are now preparing for an arbitration case that we didn’t think we’d have to attend to and at the same time, as of the 25^th of June people can entertain talking to RFA’s and he’s an RFA effectively until July 5^th.”

This pretty much means “We’ll talk to other teams and see what they’ll pay us.” Again: where does ROR get off thinking he is worth over 6 million dollars? He is -8 in his career, scores about .6 points per game, and is the whiniest greediest little brat that has ever dealt with the Avs.

“There has been some history with the previous contract and Ryan is a stubborn young man”

History meaning the Avs brass didn’t think this little rockstar was worth 6.5 million dollars? The only one who thought he was worth that was Jay Feaster. So that pretty much proves everything about this deal and ROR’s numbers is insane. And stubborn? No. There is a difference between stubborn and greedy.

Bottom line is this: The Avs can sign ROR long term at 6.5M per, or maybe more, who knows. The maybe somewhere down the road they don’t have the cap space to sign one or more of Duchene, Landy, Barrie, EJ, Varly, and whoever else. So is ROR worth the Avs potentially blowing up their team or losing some key players just to keep him on? No.

So, if you’re reading this O’Reilly (which you 99% most likely aren’t but how cool would that be, I mean come on, that would be sweet, we’d be kind of a big deal for once) then take a hike and go bog down some other team with your unnecessary and unwarranted demands. You are not worth 6.5M. If you think you are, then get your head out of your rear end.