Kyle Dubas emptied the cupboards around the trade deadline to help the Leafs finally get out of the first round with his biggest acquisition being 2019 Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly. O'Reilly solidified the Leafs down the middle and allowed them to shift the slower John Tavares over to the wing. Unfortunately, Sheldon Keefe did not elect to keep the Mitch Marner, Tavares and O'Reilly line together for the playoffs or reunite them when the team needed a scoring boost.
O'Reilly was off to a great start in the blue and white before catching an Auston Matthews wrist shot off his hand and sidelining him for a month. The break in his hand also affected his play in the playoffs, specifically his faceoff prowess where he dropped from 58% in the regular season to just 53% in the playoffs. While a 5% drop doesn't seem like much, it means that is less time the Leafs are in possession of the puck and are spending more time chasing it.
According to Frank Seravalli, O'Reilly, 32, may be pricing himself out of a return to the Leafs. Seravalli has reported that O'Reilly is seeking a 3 to 4 year deal that could earn him upwards of $20M-$25M over the course of the contract. That means that O'reilly could see an AAV of $6.25M on a 4-year deal if he were to max-out at $25M.
Seravalli stated that he envisions O'Reilly signing for somewhere between $5M and $5.5M on any deal, but that still may be too rich for the Leafs, who have just $9M in cap space and will have just $14M when they place Jake Muzzin on LTIR.
TSN's Pierre LeBrun mentioned on Insider Trading on Tuesday that Leafs GM Brad Treliving has already made contact with O'Reilly and has informed him that the Leafs would like to bring him back, so we'll have to wait and see where this goes.
