It wouldn’t be a regular offseason day for the Sabres without a trade rumor about Ryan O’Reilly. Today we got another one from Dan Buffa of 590 The Fan in St. Louis, indicating that the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues have the framework of a deal in place.
#STLBlues, keep your pants on, but I’m hearing from an anonymous source that Ryan O’Reilly is done in Buffalo.
Blues and Canadiens in play. O’Reilly’s locker is cleaned up and scrubbed. He’s gone.
Possible package going to BUFF: Thomas, Anderson, 2019 first round pick.
— Dan Buffa (@buffa82) June 28, 2018
The rumored trade is a good return for the Sabres if they acquired the highly touted prospect Robert Thomas in the deal. He was selected 20th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft by the Blues.
Thomas has number one center potential with his playmaking ability and is also reliable in his own end of the ice.
While that seemed like a good return, in theory, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic squashed the rumor of the 18-year-old being included in an O’Reilly trade.
Robert Thomas is not part of any trade talks with Buffalo. #stlblues https://t.co/k5fhSryMk7
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) June 28, 2018
The latest I’m hearing from two league sources is that the rumors of a deal being in place with any team on an O’Reilly trade are “not accurate” and “no framework has been agreed upon.”
Conversations continue to happen with a few teams and multiple players have come up in conversations with different clubs.
One such name that has come up is 2016 first-round pick, Alex Nylander. The 20-year-old winger has struggled his first two professional seasons and is an odd absentee to on-ice sessions at development camp this week.
Also, the rumor of O’Reilly clearing out his locker today is “false”, according to the same sources.
A post-July 1 trade is the most likely scenario at this point if O’Reilly is dealt. It’s still possible we see a trade prior to the bonus being paid when the new league year begins, but no team seems willing to meet the asking price or would prefer to wait until after the Sabres pay the $7.5 million bonus.
I’m not ruling out the possibility that a trade may be close with a team. In fact, I got the vibe words were being chosen carefully during my conversation on the current trade rumors.
That being said, my sources were adamant nothing was agreed to, yet.
It should be an entertaining next few days in the NHL. I’m sure we’ll get some more rumors tomorrow because that is how we pass the time during the summer without actual hockey games.