Friday, June 26, 2015

Sabres Add O'Reilly


2015 2016
To Buffalo POS Age G/W P Cap
Ryan O'Reilly F 24 17 55 $6 mil
Jamie McGinn F 26 4 16 $2.95 mil
--------------
To Colorado POS Age G/W P Cap
Nikita Zadorov D 20 3 15 $894k
Mikhail Grigorenko F 21 3 6 RFA
J.T. Compher F 20 0 0 USD
2015 2nd Round Draft Pick, #31 Overall

The Buffalo Sabres added another piece to their rebuilding puzzle, taking advantage of the Colorado Avalanche and their budget woes, snapping up forward Ryan O'Reilly in a pretty decent sized package deal.

O'Reilly was joined by forward Jamie McGinn, while the package back included a couple of Russian prospects with some NHL experience in Nikita Zadorov and Mikhail Girgorenko, a 2013 draft pick in J.T. Compher and the 31st overall pick, the first pick of the 2nd round.

The biggest piece of this deal, O'Reilly, adds a huge piece down the middle for the Sabres, one of the most important pieces an NHL team is looking for.  O'Reilly brings a very solid two-way game, leadership and a lot of intangibles to a team that is desperately in need of them.

The Avalanche, who needed to make this move for budgetary reasons, picked up a couple of X factor players in Zadorov and Grigorenko, both have some exceptional skill, but haven't been able to bring that talent to the mature levels of the NHL yet.

This is a very dynamic trade, it will be interesting to see how much good it will bring the Avalanche, but the Sabres know that they have done a huge amount of work already to turn this organization around and that includes taking Jack Eichel in the number two pick spot.

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