The Toronto Maple Leafs need to do whatever it takes to re-sign Ryan O’Reilly this offseason.
When you look back the 2022-23 Toronto Maple Leafs season, the Ryan O’Reilly trade was the most significant move of the campaign. The team finally went “all-in” and although it didn’t translate into a Stanley Cup, it wasn’t due to the lack of effort by O’Reilly.
In 13 regular season games, O’Reilly scored 11 points (four goals, seven assists) and then contributed in the playoffs with nine points in 11 games (three goals and six assists). He did his part points-wise, but more importantly fit in as a leader immediately.
As a former Conn Smythe Trophy winner, you expected O’Reilly to perform in the big moments and that’s exactly what he did. Defensively, he was always sound, and he showed that he’s the type of player you go to war with.
I know it didn’t work out in Toronto, but O’Reilly’s style of game fits perfectly in the playoffs, which is something you can’t always say about the core-four forwards. John Tavares, Auston Matthews, MItch Marner and William Nylander all play a similar soft style of hockey, so when they’re not scoring, they look weak.
O’Reilly can affect the game without scoring, which is a huge contributor to why they should re-sign him.
Toronto Maple Leafs Must Re-Sign Ryan O’Reilly
The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have a ton of cap-space available right now but they are a Matt Murray LTIR move and TJ Brodie trade away from opening up roughly $10M in cap-space, which could help pay O’Reilly and a few other individuals.
Personally, I’d still love to see one of the core-four forwards moved to create more cap-space and elevate O’Reilly to the second-line centre, with John Tavares on the wing, but who knows if that will actually happen. The idea of moving one of those players is a lot easier said than done, so I feel like it’s still more likely that the team stays put for another year.
Regardless of what happens with the core, O’Reilly needs to be a number-one priority. We sometimes forget that it wasn’t that long ago that local players never wanted to play in Toronto, but Tavares changed that trend when he signed as a free agent five years ago.
By all accounts, O’Reilly loves playing in Toronto and wants to win here, so that’s a huge plus. Money is obviously an important decision for any free agent, but the Leafs could potentially convince him to stay with a home-town discount if it meant the team had a better chance at lifting a Stanley Cup.
I’d rather have O’Reilly’s leadership skills with 15 less goals and 40 less points than Mitch Marner’s inability to play hard in the playoffs, so the Leafs better do whatever it takes to get O’Reilly back in a Leafs jersey next fall.