There's literally no need for this post

They’ve got an EXPENSIVE fourth line

https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/150771

Look at this^

Few people were saying Buffalo got good value

I remember you were one of the people happy with the Orielly trade lol. This post illustrates just how much better potentially the sabres could’ve been. Eichal/Orielly would’ve been an excellent 1/2 punch for years.

Another thing to note is maybe the return doesn't look so bad if they drafted better with the pick. It's not likely, but imagine the return is with DeBrincat instead of Thompson. Either way, the Sabres got finessed by having the 26th pick be the most valuable piece in the return

my b, the Blues took Thompson and the 1st was in 2019**, oops

A lot of sabres fans were defending it, while every other fan base thought they got robbed. At least they didn’t pay much to get Orielly. Zaderov is “meh”, grigs is out of the NHL, compher is a third liner, and the 2nd round pick was a bust.

Yeah the 2019 pick was what buffalo received. Only time will tell how Ryan Johnson is.

Even if they just waited one more day to pay RORs $7mill bonus this deal could’ve been much better for buffalo. But Pegula took the penny pinching route and forced Botts to make his move

Sabres also received the STL 2021 2nd and (along with their 2022 5th) traded it for Colin Miller. Just being pedantic, but it might be the best part of the return, depending on Johnson's development.

I remember Buffalo fans getting Hughes and Kakko jerseys in December of 18’

When the best part of an Orielly trade is Collin Miller... that’s an issue

I had no issue with the trade

1 cup, selke, and conn smyth later... Jesus what a season he had

From what I remember O’Reilly said he didn’t want to be in buffalo anymore either and if a guy doesn’t want to be there, you get rid of him before he becomes a cancer to the team.

Yes, buffalo got fleeced but they did what they had to do.

Also Thompson was supposed to be better, who knew at that time he’d be a bust.

People that didnt know what they were talking about. There is no excuse for getting a first, a teams 4th best prospect and 2 old cap dump third liners for a player like ROR.

You have to keep in mind o'reilly hated playing in buffalo. He literally said he lost his passion for hockey playing in buffalo on an interview with darren dreger

But is the blame placed more on Botterill or on the rest of the no-balls GMs around the league that didn't get involved? I understand why Bergevin didn't want to move the 3rd overall, but where were all the other teams? (I genuinely would like to know if anyone else was rumored to be involved) Blues ended up making a cap-neutral trade for a top center under contract through the rest of his prime, and based on the price they paid there wasn't any competition...

I don’t remember that. But chances are if botterill (and Tim Murray) did a better job at putting together a solid supporting cast and buffalo actually won some games, things would’ve been different. For the 15-16 season buffalo added Eichal AND Orielly. No excuse that team couldn’t turn it around. It’s 2020 and buffalo STILL isn’t a playoff team.

Still can’t believe the habs weren’t in on him. Marc bergavin isn’t a bad GM for the trades / moves he makes, he’s a bad GM for the trades / moves he DOESNT make. Orielly is the best first line centre the habs would’ve had in decades. He could’ve put together a better package than what St. Louis offered

Wasn't with dreger, I was wrong on that, but he did say it. Start at like 1:30 ish. He says it at like 1:55. https://youtu.be/l_ZpOdjLiSo

It was something around he lost his passion for the game in buffalo and didn’t know if he wanted to play hockey anymore or something like that. Not really worth keeping a guy like that around imo.

I was in there and said it was terrible

And Lehner. They were close to contending as well. They needed to fix their D and instead traded away their 2C

I'm one who didn't think it was a bad trade for the Sabres. OReilly wasn't helping the Sabres much (not necessarily his fault), and the Sabres got an added bonus when Berglund NHL retired.
So the Sabres had the opportunity to have all that free cap....and get a player(s) to make them better.
Unfortunately for Sabres, the Sabres wasted the new found cap by spending 9m for Skinner.
The fact that O'Reilly has played outstanding for Blues doesn't really matter to the Sabres. How the Sabres squandered the assets in the trade and the cap available makes the trade bad for Sabres.

In kind reminds of the Kessel to Pittsburg trade. Kessel had become an average to bad NHL forward. So getting rid of Kessel and his cap was of great benefit. Didn't matter that the Kessel "woke up"
and became a fine player again wit the Pens , he wasn't doing it as a Leaf .

The big difference though is Trading Kessel signified the start of the leafs rebuild. Sabres had been rebuilding for YEARs when they traded Orielly. It shouldn’t have got to that point.