Well I can now understand why you feel as you do. Yup two players who were locker room problems. One whose issues were self inflicted ("I lost my love of the game") the other caused by his GF. I am certain a lot of players wives have had conflicts in the past but none of the players were not traded away because of the conflicts. Can you think of any player who declared he quit on the team? I cannot.

Now I understand, you do not see the similarities! You do not see that one was self declared, the other was out side the rink, the locker room, outside the arena!
Only in your mind they are unrelated, both players unwanted, they were both traded, one returned a 3rd line player, the other a first (lets say it is Montour), a prospect (Thompson who appears to need more training, I hope you know he had 6 goals and 9 pts in 8 AHL and games and scored half of the Amerks play off goals), and a second, yet you continue to call this a "Haha oh buffalo what a terrible trade" especially when a Blues fan says O'Reilly was not a major contributor and scored most of his points when the team was in last place. Good job! Stick you head in the sand, ignore your eyes, ignore your ears and ignore the facts

One blues fan said that. And the trade was terrible..... idc how you want to look at it. You traded a top 8-15 center for spare parts. I mean you got a steal on skinner but ror was an abortion of a trade. It’s okay to admit that it’s a bad trade. Calm down

Please prove to me he is a top 8 center, then I will answer you.

Said top 8-15 meaning depending on what factors you value most he would fall between 8-15. I honestly don’t care but he’s one of the best 2 way center in the game and is roughly a point per game player. Guys of his skill set I’d say berg and Barkov are the only 2 better than him. And I’m bored with this. More or less an opinionated discussion about ror. Facts he one of the blues best player reg season and playoffs. You guys got scraps for him.... name 8 -15 center that are 100% better all around than him?

Here is a challenge to you, you do the post and ask other ACGM would trade any of these centers Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Steven Stamkos, Aleksander Barkov, Brayden Point, John Tavares, Claude Giroux, Sebastian Aho, Sean Monahan, Jack Eichel, Jonathan Toews,Tyler Seguin, Patrice Bergeron, Elias Lindholm, Sean Couturier, Tomas Hertl, Auston Matthews, Dylan Larkin, David Krejci, Max Domi, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Evgeni Malkin, Matt Duchene, Logan Couture for O'Reilly. That is 26 centers, I know there will be some but I am sure there will be at least 15 (maybe more than 20) who would not make the one for one trade.

Better yet you make one trading all these guys for ror. Leon is a winger so is Claude. Well both are only effective as wingers. I as a caps fan would trade kuzy for ror

Also shame on you nick backstrom wasn’t on your list.... he’s better than 80% of the guys you listed. Already lost credibility on that

My friend, I know he is not a top 15 center, you think he is, you need to prove it to me. Thanks for reminding me about Backstrom, move O'Reilly down by one more, O'Reilly is not now not a top 16 center.

https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/220955&pid=835122

This guy ranks every position.... I think he’s very accurate or close to it. He also gives every player a stat number. But works done for me

Perfect thank you very much, that makes him tied with 9 other centers for 13th place. So if we put him in the middle of those 9 (behind Point, Aho, Kuznetsov, Backstrom) instead of at the top, that makes him 17th, I love it when you make my points for me.

I’d put him at the top considering he’s up for the Selke and lady Byng. Ha he’s also 2 technical points out of top 10 or whatever. I told you he’s top 8-15 easily top 15. You can’t admit it and it’s sad. But again could care less he’s a great player. 1 point behind eichel who I bet you think is amazing

You said he was top 8 to 15, YOUR data not mine indicates he is not. I said Buffalo essentially received equal assets as when he was traded away (draft picks cancel, Thompson about equal to Zadorov, Grigorenko about equal to Berglund, at the time Compher was about equal to McGinn, in fact McGinn was more valuable) yet O'Reilly diminished his own value.

It does not matter what his rank is among top center men, I said his trade value was comparable to Hoffman, (unwanted, equal stats, equal age, equal cap hit etc.) Hoffman returned a 3-C O'Reilly much more, for some reason you somehow do not see the similarities of the two players, their performance nor the greater return for O'Reilly.

If you read one of my earlier posts I said my evaluation of O'Reilly is too harsh and he does have value, I merely maintain that the return was fair and more than I could have expected considering Hoffman's trade value.

I will finally submit, O'Reilly did not improve the Avalanche, Sabres, nor Blues (until Binnington arrived they were last place over all), I am happy to see him gone, you can go foreword and challenge me in a year, but I think Thompson will prove his value next year. Montour was the Sabres best defenseman during his stint in Buffalo, and then there is still a 2nd. His locker room issues were his own admission not gossip. I did not want a self proclaimed quitter on the team, a bucket of pucks would have made me happy just to get him out of Buffalo. You think the return should have been larger based on what other equal centers would have returned. That is fine, I compare the return to what the Sabres had to give up to get him and to the Hoffman trade and it appears to be fair to me.

He didn't do well on Faceoffs. Schenn, Schwartz, Dunn, Parayko, and Thomas were all the BIG factors on the ice. O'Reilly was invisible for 2-3 shifts at a time.