Colorado Avalanche Problem 2: Ryan O’Reilly
Center Ryan O’Reilly is toxic for the Colorado Avalanche now.
I’m sure he doesn’t mean to be. He seems like a perfectly pleasant young man. I doubt he’s anything but professional and even friendly in the locker room. However, he is the toxic elephant in the room.
And, yes, it all comes back to the contractual disputes.
O’Reilly Contractual Dispute 1
The old regime of Colorado Avalanche administration tried to go cheap on the talented young center, Ryan O’Reilly, three years ago when he was a restricted free agent. They low-balled his worth, only offering him $3.5 million a year. They likely had in mind that they’d pay more, but they were probably hoping to get a deal.
Instead, the NHL lockout happened. O’Reilly struck a deal with the Kontinental Hockey League, Russia’s version of the NHL. However, while most players signed on only for the duration of the lockout, OReilly signed a two-year contract that gave him an out in case the Avalanche didn’t offer his worth. Sure enough, when the lockout ended, O’Reilly stayed with the KHL Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames made him an offer sheet more to his liking. As was his right, O’Reilly could sign with the Flames if the Avalanche didn’t match the offer sheet.
They matched it, and O’Reilly finally returned to Colorado.
O’Reilly Contractual Dispute 2
Truthfully, the second contractual dispute with Ryan O’Reilly was just an extension of the first one. The Avalanche had to match the Flames’ offer sheet. That meant they paid him $10 million for two years. He got paid $3.5 million his first season and $6.5 million his second. However, each season his cap hit was only $5 million, as if that were his salary.
Well, O’Reilly’s contract was up at the end of last season, making him a restricted free agent again. He’d also had a career year and even won the Lady Byng Trophy. He should be up for a pay raise.
Avalanche GM Joe Sakic and the front offices agreed he deserved a pay raise – based on the $5 million cap hit as the starting point. O’Reilly and his agent thought the raise should come off of his last salary, $6.5 million. They wanted him to make $6.75 million.
The Avalanche front offices were unwilling to pay him more than center Matt Duchene, who was scheduled to make $6 million. That was their “structure.”
They filed for arbitration with O’Reilly over the contractual dispute. O’Reilly agreed to their offer sheet of $6 million at the eleventh hour – literally in the waiting room of the arbiter. The Avalanche were set to have O’Reilly for two more years.
However, the Colorado Avalanche, the only NHL team that O’Reilly has ever known, was willing to sit down and denigrate his worth. They were willing to paint him in an unflattering light to make their point. No, O’Reilly didn’t deserve a more lucrative contract than Duchene. But, no, O’Reilly didn’t deserve that either.
Effect on O’Reilly
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Sports pundits would like to think the above had no effect on O’Reilly. They point out that he’s a strong two-way center with top skills in takeaways. They think he’s going to use those skills for the Colorado Avalanche.
Ryan O’Reilly is not going to use his skills to benefit the Colorado Avalanche.
O’Reilly is a professional and, by all accounts, a decent guy. I doubt he’s purposely sabotaging his play to sabotage the team. He’s a known rink rat, and he likely loves his teammates.
It’s doubtful he loves the logo and all it stands for. How could he? Besides what the front offices put him through, many Colorado Avalanche fans expressed frustration with his perceived greed.
So, the cold, hard reality is that it doesn’t matter how much of a rink rat O’Reilly is. His two-way and takeaway skills don’t matter either. Ryan O’Reilly will never live up to his potential as a Colorado Avalanche player. He will play for pride and for his teammates, but he does not bleed burgundy and blue.
Besides all of that, his name has been used for trade rumors for going on a year now. Practically every post that mentions a Colorado Avalanche trade talks about O’Reilly – including here on Mile High Sticking. That’s got to be distracting.
Ryan O’Reilly may not exactly be hurting the Colorado Avalanche, but he’s not helping them either. He never will.