Player Report Card: Ryan O’Reilly

Season Stats: 81 GP | 24 G | 37 A | 61 PTS

Age: 27

Contract Status: signed through 2022-23

Ryan O’Reilly was hard to grade with how he played this past season. He set career highs in goals and points during his tenure with the Buffalo Sabres. On the flip side, there were too many nights this season where he wasn’t noticeable.

We know what the 27-year-old center is good at. He can win a lot of face-offs and will end up around 55 to 60 points in a season. Good numbers for a two-way second line center.

O’Reilly finished this season with 24 goals and 61 points in 81 games. As I mentioned both of those were career highs with the Sabres. He ate up a lot of ice time as expected, playing in all situations.

Where it gets tough to judge his season, is dealing with the inconsistency. O’Reilly will go long stretches without contributing on the score sheet and then put points up in bunches. This isn’t uncommon as a lot of goal scorers around the league are streaky.

The issue is when he’s not right, he’s really not right. The Canadian born forward not only struggles to produce offensively when he’s in a rough patch but the rest of his game struggles as well. He becomes non-existent and makes mistakes in the defensive zone that result in pucks ending up in his net.

At the end of the day, you usually get more of the good O’Reilly than the bad. After his comments this offseason and changes coming to the roster. We’ll see if he returns next season for the Sabres.

Season Grade: B+