Predators Plans for Trade Traget Ryan O’Reilly Revealed

Ryan O'Reilly's name has started to creep into the conversation as a trade target of some teams around the NHL who are looking for a boost at center going down the stretch and into the playoffs. He's in the second season of a four-year $4.5 million AAV deal he signed with the Nashville Predators as a free agent in the summer of 2023. There is no trade protection clause in his contract.

But the Predators have a specific plan for their veteran leader that might disappoint some teams, according to insider Elliotte Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada.

Here's what I understand the Predators are telling teams: he may not have protection language in his contract, but he is being treated as if he has a no move clause. I think the Predators preference is to keep him... they see him as a leader on and off the ice.

Friedman adds that there are two conditions that must be met in order for them to consider trading O'Reilly:

1. The offer has to "really excite them."

2. It has to be something that O'Reilly would agree to.

Interestingly, the Toronto Maple Leafs are a team that has been mentioned frequently as a club that could really use (a reunion with) O'Reilly for their playoff run. They traded for him at the deadline in 2023, and he was an important cog as the team won its first and only playoff series in the last 20 years.

But it should be noted that although the Leafs wanted to keep him as a free agent that summer, he shunned them to go to Nashville. It seems unlikely that he would want to be traded back to Toronto.

O'Reilly has 12 goals and 25 points in 39 games this season for the Preds.