St. Louis Blues Rumors: Ryan O'Reilly Linked to Division Rival

The 2022-23 season has not been a good one for the St. Louis Blues, and pending UFA Ryan O'Reilly has emerged as a prime trade target because of it. Several teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Seattle Kraken have been linked to the veteran. Yet, NHL insider Frank Seravalli reported that the Minnesota Wild could also be a possible landing spot for him.

2023 Trade Deadline Playbook: Minnesota Wild #mnwild

🏒 Deadline Posture: Cautious Buyers
🏒 Likely to trade within specific parameters
🏒 Deadline Objectives
🏒 Potential Targets
🏒 Trade Chipshttps://t.co/lRnTsKUyP7
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) February 15, 2023

There is no question that the Wild need to improve their center group if they hope to go on a real run this postseason. Players like Ryan Hartman, Sam Steel, and Joel Eriksson Ek are not answers for the first-line center role, but O'Reilly certainly would be. With that, his marvelous two-way play would allow him to be a major contributor to both their power play and penalty kill.

The Wild have over $15 million of deadline cap space to work with, per CapFriendly, so they are in a position to add multiple rentals to their group before the deadline passes. On paper, there may not be a better fit than O'Reilly, so we will need to wait and see if they end up being the lucky team that acquires him from here.