Ryan O’Reilly trade details: Maple Leafs acquire Blues’ captain in deal that also involves Wild
Another blues veteran is on the way ahead of the NHL trade deadline. This time it’s the captain of the team.
St. Louis traded center Ryan O’Reilly to the Maple Leafs on Friday as part of a three-team trade also involving the Wild. Toronto announced its end of the move after Minnesota’s game against the Stars.
O’Reilly is the second core Blues player to be traded in a week as the team continues to advance their 2019 Stanley Cup triumph. Winger Vladimir Tarasenko was traded to Rangers on February 9.
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Full details on the move and what it means for Toronto and St. Louis:
Trading details from Ryan O’Reilly
O’Reilly, 32, travels to Toronto with center Noel Acciari on a deal that includes three teams, five players and four draft picks.
Toronto is giving up three of its picks in the deal — one each in 2023, 2024 and 2025 — as general manager Kyle Dubas adds an accomplished playoff performer to a team with intentions of progressing past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time 2004
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O’Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy while leading the Blues to the Cup in 2019. He has 22 goals and 34 assists in 64 career playoff games with St. Louis and Colorado.
He was limited to 40 games this season because of a broken foot. He returned to the game on February 11 and played three games with St. Louis before the trade. For the year, he has 21 points (12 goals, nine assists).
Acciari, 31, had 10 goals and eight assists in 54 games for St. Louis this season.
The Blues are bringing back two players who spent the season playing for the Leafs’ AHL affiliate: Adam Gaudette, a 26-year-old journeyman center who has played in the NHL for the Canucks, Blackhawks and Senators; and Mikhail Abramov, a 21-year-old center from Russia who played in the QMJHL. He was selected by the Leafs in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL Draft.
More importantly, St. Louis Draft Capital adds: the Leafs’ first-round pick in 2023; the third round of senators in 2023; and the Leafs’ second-round pick in 2024.
Minnesota’s role in the deal is primarily financial. It keeps 25 percent of O’Reilly’s remaining salary and gets the Leafs’ fourth-choice pick in 2025. It also traded the rights to 2021 draft pick Ryan Pillar to St. Louis, which then flipped them to Toronto. The Blues keep 50 percent of O’Reilly’s salary. O’Reilly is making $7.5 million in the final year of a seven-year, $52.5 million contract.
This article was updated with the Leafs’ acquisition of Josh Pillar. It also corrects the last time the Leafs exited the first round of the playoffs through 2004 and O’Reilly’s career playoff stats.