Dreger on sign-and-trades, O'Reilly, Petry

Darren Dreger was on Winnipeg’s TSN 1290 on Wednesday afternoon.

(Following this discussion on Ryan O'Reilly) On sign-and-trade situations, and if there can be a conversation with the agent or if it’s always buyer beware:

“No, there can be and there often is conversations with agents. Pat Morris with Newport Sports represents Ryan O’Reilly and I’m sure that he would be relatively active in that process when it became clear that O’Reilly most certainly was going to be traded.

“We know the Newport group very, very well. They represent their clients to the full extent. Unless they’re instructed to do so, I’m sure that they would encourage that O’Reilly wait in terms of signing any type of extension. Unless that extension is just so secure in terms of the number of years and money being offered that it’s just common sense that you just take the deal. But no, no – the agents are always heavily involved.

“To bring it maybe into the here and now, not saying that O’Reilly isn’t – but you look at Jeff Petry as an example in Edmonton. He too is represented by Newport. I know that the Newport people have talked with teams about him because there is interest in Jeff Petry, a right-shot defenceman. But for that reason – teams aren’t willing to pay the price that Edmonton may want in return. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent. So you want at least a parameter of what it might take to keep him away from the open market.”

Source: TSN 1290/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

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