The O’Reilly Factor
THE O’REILLY FACTOR (no, not that O’Reilly Factor):
The Ryan O’Reilly offer sheet debacle has become a lot more interesting.
It’s become apparent that if the Avs hadn’t matched the offer, O’Reilly would have had to clear waivers before joining the Flames because he played two games in the KHL AFTER the NHL season started. So, who’s to blame? Everyone except the NHL.
Calgary- “Interpreted” the rule differently. If the Avs hadn’t matched, another team would have doubtlessly snatched O’Reilly off waivers, meaning they would have a new player, the Avs would have Calgary’s 1st and 3rd draft picks, and the Flames would have ended up with NOTHING. All it would have taken was a phone call the the NHL to ask about the rule. GM Jay Feaster and others would almost certainly be out of a job if this had gone through.
Colorado- If they’d known what the rule was, they would likely have told Calgary about it, therefore avoiding the offer sheet and having to shell out over $6m for O’Reilly next season. Otherwise they knew about the rule and decided to completely fuck Calgary over by not matching the offer if it was too much money, and essentially taking Calgary’s draft picks for free.
Pat Morris- O’Reilly’s agent also misinterpreted the rule. In the quest for more cash, he could have accidentally screwed over his client and an entire NHL franchise.
Ryan O’Reilly- He would have happily moved to Calgary or stayed in Colorado, but would have most likely have ended up in Columbus or somewhere else he didn’t want to be.
If the deal had gone through there would be a whole mess of appeals and bullcrap for the league to deal with, and O’Reilly might not have been able to play for whichever team had him for several more weeks. I guess everyone involved can be thankful that Colorado matched the offer sheet.
Shitshow.
The backlash in Colorado is that the Avs told Matt Duchene that they wouldn’t pay anyone more than what he’s making, and now O’Reilly is going to be making almost double that next year. Basically, the guy who took less money, worked his ass off during the offseason, and who is now having a great year, is going to get paid less than the guy who sat back and waited for the money to come in. We’ll see if that causes some off-ice tension.
So, I guess that’s the real O’Reilly Factor.
