Maple Leafs take on Blues Ryan OReilly in 3 team deal

Maple Leafs take on Blues’ Ryan O’Reilly in 3-team deal

The St. Louis Blues have sold captain Ryan O’Reilly to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a three-team deal that also includes the Minnesota Wild, the teams announced Friday night.

O’Reilly, a center, travels to Toronto with forward Noel Acciari. In exchange, St. Louis will get prospective Mikhail Abramov, forward Adam Gaudette, the 2023 first-round pick of the Leafs, the 2023 third-round pick of the Ottawa Senators, and the 2024 second-round pick of Toronto.

The Wild send Josh Pillar, a 2019 Minnesota fourth-round pick, to Toronto in exchange for the Leafs’ 2025 fourth-round pick. Pillar has 12 points in 12 games with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL.

O’Reilly, who will be a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, carries a $7.5 million cap hit. St. Louis keeps 50% of O’Reilly’s salary, while Minnesota keeps another 25%. The 32-year-old O’Reilly, who has 12 goals and 19 points in 40 games, returned to the lineup on February 11 after suffering a broken foot in a game against the Wild on December 31.

The addition of O’Reilly gives the Maple Leafs one of the most recognizable names ahead of the NHL trade deadline. Most importantly, that leaves them with a two-way veteran who won a Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Selke Trophy as the league’s top attacking forward in 2019. His arrival further bolsters what the Leafs already have at center with Auston Matthews and John Tavares, which they believe will be a move that raises Stanley Cup aspirations for a franchise that hasn’t won a title since 1967 and it hasn’t has made the first round of the playoffs since the 2003-04 season.

Getting Acciari in the deal gives the Leafs another middle-to-end forward who can put up a small shot on target as he has 10 goals and 18 points in 54 games. Acciari also gives the Leafs another proven two-way forward that can be used alongside O’Reilly to help a Leafs penalty kill, which is ranked 14th in the NHL with an 80.6% success rate.

For the Blues, the decision to move from O’Reilly had been expected after they sold veteran winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the New York Rangers on February 9. The Blues’ attempt to reach another postseason with upcoming UFAs like O’Reilly and Tarasenko has faced challenges. Long win-lost streaks were one of the factors why they struggled to find consistency and fall further behind in the Western Conference playoff chase.

At the start of Saturday, the Blues were eight points away from the West’s last wildcard spot. The Leafs are now second in the Atlantic Division, but are 13 points behind the Boston Bruins, the team with the best record in the NHL.

The Blues now have nine picks in this year’s draft, three of which come in the first round alone.

Abramov, a fourth-round pick by the Leafs in 2019, has yet to play in the NHL and has spent this season with their AHL partner, where he has 10 goals and 27 points in 57 games.

Gaudette, who has played more than 200 NHL games, spent the entire season in the AHL, scoring 20 goals and 33 points in 39 games. Abramov will have one season remaining on his current contract after this year, while Gaudette will be an upcoming restricted free agent this offseason.