Friedman thinks Avs have decided to "fish and cut bait" with O'Reilly

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

On if Ryan O’Reilly is a guy you want to be your long-time, first-line center:

“Well, I think he’s a really good player. I do. The biggest question you probably have is, ‘Hey, what’s the number? What does this guy want?’ And, ‘Are we going to have peace once we get there?’

“O’Reilly, when he was going through the whole contact dispute and offer sheet, I asked a few teams, ‘Is this guy a No. 1 center?’

“I got a lot of interesting reaction. Nobody came out and said, ‘He’s your prototype No. 1 center.’ But what they did say is he’s a really good center, depending on who you play him with. If you play him with two offensive players, yes, he can be your No. 1 center. But if you’re playing him with guys who aren’t great offensive players, he’s probably your No. 2 center.

“He’s a really good two-way guy. He loves to shut down guys. You played with a guy like Mike Peca. He was probably the same in attitude, in the sense that, ‘I’m going to look at the guy across from me, and he’s not going to score tonight.’ Good conscience.

"But whatever the reason, it’s not going well there in Colorado, and they’ve decided that they’re going to fish and cut bait, I think.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

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Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey