The Toronto Maple Leafs need to have a Plan B option incase the John Tavares talks stall out.
While I believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be able to convince Tavares to come home, it is smart to have a plan B option.
Over the course of his career, Tavares has been loyal to the New York Islanders. No amount of money will likely convince Tavares to go somewhere else over Long Island. The Islanders will likely match any offer that Tavares gets as they have the most cap space in the league. In addition, local New York businesses are doing their part to keep him in NY. Per a report from Newsday, Bagel Boss and Oyster Bay Brewing are doing their best to ensure that Tavares doesn’t return home.
So, as I was saying it would be smart to have another plan in your back pocket. If I were Kyle Dubas, I would be talking with the Buffalo Sabres about Ryan O’Reilly.
While the Sabres were in absolute turmoil last year, on the other hand, O’Reilly was phenomenal. In 81 games played, he registered 24 goals, 37 assists, 15 PPG, 23 PPP and a 10.4 S%. In addition, he had a 50.8 corsi-for percentage (CF%) and a 50.6 fenwick-for percentage (FF%). At the end of the day, he had the best season of his career. He finally showed off his scoring ability on the power-play and owned his best CF and FF percentages since joining the Sabres.
He’s Local Too!
O’Reilly is also from the area. He grew up in Clinton, Ontario. Clinton is just an hour and 15 minutes north of London, Ontario.
Not only is he local, but he can also deliver in the offensive zone. He’s a strong play-maker, but is underrated after his time with the Buffalo Sabres. During his tenure with the Sabres, he wasn’t playing with strong wingers and wasn’t on national TV too often. If he packed his bags and headed north, he would be joining a strong core of wingers in Toronto.
The only issue that O’Reilly would have to be traded for. Unless, the Toronto Maple Leafs want to wait till 2022-23 when he’s a free agent. In all likelihood, O’Reilly is sparking a ton of interest on the trade market. In fact, the Montreal Canadiens have been rumoured to be interested in acquiring him.
If the Habs are the Maple Leafs’ main competition for O’Reilly, Leafs Nation shouldn’t be too concerned. The Habs’ farm system isn’t great. Aside from Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Habs really don’t have much talent. Nikita Scherbak, Mike McCarron and Noah Juulsen are the top Habs prospects. If I was Jason Botterill, the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, I wouldn’t be too keen on the Habs farm system. Instead, I would want to talk to the Toronto Maple Leafs as they have a stacked farm system. In addition, their AHL team, the Toronto Marlies just won the Calder.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs would have to part with some draft picks and/or prospects to land O’Reilly. He’d be worth it though. O’Reilly would make the Maple Leafs offense a lot stronger and they could potentially make it further in the playoffs.
stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com