The Calgary Flames have signed restricted Free Agent Centre Ryan O’Reilly of the Colorado Avalanche to a 2 year, 10 million dollar offer sheet. Last season O’Reilly had 18 goals and 55 points in 81 games, in leading the Avalanche in scoring. The 2009 second round draft pick just recently turned 22 years old.
The deal is structured such that O’Reilly gets $1 million for this season (pro-rated) and 2.5 million as a signing bonus. He then gets $6.5 million next season. This is quite significant as the structure (signing bonus) puts real money in his pocket this year and avoids a lot of what he would lose by pro-rating the year. The back loaded $6.5 million in year two also has this effect, but it also means that his qualifying offer in the summer of 2014 will be $6.5 million or he becomes an unrestricted free agent at that time.
The Avalanche have 7 days to match the offer or take the compensation in this case. Compensation would be Calgary’s 1st and 3rd round picks in the 2013 draft. The Flames previously traded their 2013 second round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in the deal that brought them Mike Cammalleri. If the season ended today, the Flames 1st round pick would be 9th overall (pre-lottery results). This is an extremely risky move for Calgary as one losing streak could have their pick ending up very high in the draft.
O’Reilly is a gritty, defensively responsible centre, who has a great two way game. Last season’s point totals suggest that he can also be an offensive contributor and show potential to be a top line centre, and he’s a sure fire second rounder. The Flames have been looking for a top centre for as long as anyone can remember, never truly having a guy to play with star winger Jarome Iginla. It will be interesting to see if O’Reilly can be that top line guy the Flames have needed. Personally I remain unconvinced at this point. I think he’s a great #2 centre, but I don’t think O’Reilly is the top line guy the Flames have lacked for so long.
O’Reilly has been playing for Magnitogorsk Metallurg in the KHL while going through this bitter contract stalemate with the Avalanche. Refusing to sign the Avalanche’s offer of 2 years 7 million dollars, or the same deal given last summer to teammate Matt Duchene. While O’Reilly was said to be looking for a long term deal at 5 million per season, it would appear he’s gotten the dollars but not the term. As state though, he did get a guarantee that he will either be offered more dollars or UFA status in 2014.
Edit: The Avalanche announced they are matching the Flames offer sheet to O’Reilly meaning that he will be expected to report to the team in the coming days. This means that the Avalanche can not trade O’Reilly for at least 1 calendar year, and must keep him on their current roster. He will be expected to report to Colorado shortly.
For a history of the Offer Sheet in the NHL and its previous uses, you can read my previous article here.
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