Friedman thinks Avalanche, O'Reilly have decided to move on

Elliotte Friedman was on Calgary’s Sportsnet 960 on Monday morning.

On Ryan O’Reilly trade talk:

“It’s impossible to get anything out of Colorado. They don’t really say much. I think a lot of times when you’re dealing with them you’re kind of guessing as to what they do. Not only because they don’t say much, but they tend to operate a lot differently than a lot of other teams. They’ve had a lot of their battles on contracts and things like that over the years that haven’t ended well, and certainly that’s the case with O’Reilly.

“I do think he’s available. He’s a free agent after next season and I think Colorado has kind of decided that they’re going to move on, and he’s going to move on, so you might as well get something for him.

“I did hear as I mentioned on this one show that Arizona had kind of talked a Yandle for O’Reilly deal, which mades a lot of sense for both teams, it’s what both teams need. The one thing I’m hearing about O’Reilly though is that teams do want to know, ‘Do we have a chance of signing this guy?’ before they make necessarily a huge trade for him.

“That’s a tough one to answer. You can negotiation with him now. You can sign him after July 1 because that’s when he’s a year away from unrestricted free agency, so that’s when you can sign a guy.

“But I think the biggest question about O’Reilly is – If you’re trying to win a Stanley Cup in two years and you think he’s a piece, that’s one thing. But if you’re trading for him because you want him to be your long-time center, what kind of assurances are you going to get that you can re-sign him? Because obviously contract talks with Colorado, as you guys know first-hand, have not been easy.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

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