Confirmed with Link: Avs match O'Reilly's offersheet [AAV 5 million /2 years]

[RoyIsALegend]

Did you ask him specifically how Matt welcomed him?

No, was just curious who reached out to him first. Wilson, O'Byrne, Duchene. Don't know if it was in that order, just they were the first three to contact him after the game. I'd imagine Sauce contacted him during the game, of course.

 

[Foppa2118]

FYI - Matt Duchene texted Ryan O'Reilly about 20 minutes after the Calgary game. Don't know the context, but welcomed him back basically. In case anybody was worried about ill will from Duchene or anything. Matty D's not like that, I was glad to hear that bit of news.



He's very happy to be back with his teammates and his coaches, who he honestly gets along with great. You can't expect him to come out and say positive things about management or the organization... yet, at least.

Good to hear on Dutchy.

And I agree with the second part, even though I wholeheartedly disagree with him holding out. It's understandable. We wonder if things can mend from the Avs standpoint, I just hope things can be mended from Ryan's standpoint as well.

 

[the_fan]

He just outlined it perfectly how the ROR and Sakic situations were completely different. The only similarity is that they were both signed to offer sheets.

I disagree as far as situation being different when Sakic signed the offer sheet.

The details may be different but the situation was the same. O'Reilly is being bashed here for what he did, which is pretty much not being loyal to the Avs and wanting more money.

Sakic was the captain and face of the franchise, but he also signed the offer sheet from another team instead of ignoring the Rangers offer and saying I will stay with the Avs at any price because I'm very loyal to this team.

Bottom line is, money talks.

 

[Foppa2118]

Sakic also played his prime years in a no salary cap era. The Avs were similar to the Yankees if you will, in that they could pretty much just buy their roster. Evidenced by Selanne and Kariya. Money and salary and caps hits means much different things now.

I agree on the big difference between Sakic and O'Reilly's situation, but this bolded argument has never held water with me. The Avs didn't buy their teams in the sense that they paid big bucks for UFA's. They re-signed their own HOF players with big contracts. That's very different.

Kariya/Selanne was the first time they signed high profile UFA's, and they only did so because they came so cheap on the package deal. It didn't work, and they never went back to that route until FG signed Smyth and Hannan.

 

[S E P H]

Awesome interview, he said all the right answers.

Plus he has the Forsberg goatee going on.

 

[Ivan13]

Selanne and especially Kariya signed for peanuts to get a chance to win a SC. I don't remember a single high profile FA signing from Avs glory days before the lockout.

 

[Hasbro]

Hell the Rangers raided our roster more than any other team's during that era. Keane, Kamensky, Lefevre, Kasparitus, DeVries...

 

[Freudian]

Hell the Rangers raided our roster more than any other team's during that era. Keane, Kamensky, Lefevre, Kasparitus, DeVries...

Add Fleury.

It was Neil Smith going crazy.

Apparently one of the Avs owners sent Rangers a photo after the Sakic offer sheet. I think it was a photo of Rockefeller flipping the bird:

This made Rangers go after every Avs player they could for a while. I don't think it helped Rangers but I guess they got something out of their system.

Neil Smith slammed Avs during this whole O'Reilly affair, but knowing history who would expect anything else?

 

[AvsWraith]

Hope the team makes this right with Duchene on his next deal because he does not deserve to be paid less than both ROR and Stastny. He has a great rapport with the fans. He gives great interviews. He loves this team, you can tell. Hell, Matt Duchene markets the Avs better than the team itself does. I bet that if you surveyed the crowd at Pepsi Center, on any given evening, the player that put most of the butts in the seats would be Duchene. Not cool that he has to prove himself why everyone else gets to be paid like a game changer.

 

[AslanRH]

I disagree as far as situation being different when Sakic signed the offer sheet.

The details may be different but the situation was the same. O'Reilly is being bashed here for what he did, which is pretty much not being loyal to the Avs and wanting more money.

Sakic was the captain and face of the franchise, but he also signed the offer sheet from another team instead of ignoring the Rangers offer and saying I will stay with the Avs at any price because I'm very loyal to this team.

Bottom line is, money talks.

Sakic signed that sheet in early August. Well before any team activities and start of the season.
At the time, I do not believe anyone felt Sakic would not resign with the Avs or hold out come October. NYR just made a move that made the $$ hard for Sakic to pass on and they front loaded that deal with an unprecedented 15m signing bonus.

The situations were very different and very much less about what Sakic thought he was worth vs any offer from the club, but about the crazy "overpayment" the Rangers were offering.

Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember that time, and the absolute shock and panic the Avs' fans felt. At the time, there were still some grumblings from fans ("How could he sign that?", "Where's his loyalty?", etc") but no one could blame him with the money involved, and he quickly made the fans forget it by his play and by being the greatness that was Sakic.

Now ROR has the same if not larger issue to deal with. I do not blame him for signing that sheet. That's great money, but I do need to see that he WANTS to be a part of this team, and not just working for the check before I forget that he held out and was willing to never wear an Avs sweater again.

 

[PeterTheGreat]

Hope the team makes this right with Duchene on his next deal because he does not deserve to be paid less than both ROR and Stastny. He has a great rapport with the fans. He gives great interviews. He loves this team, you can tell. Hell, Matt Duchene markets the Avs better than the team itself does. I bet that if you surveyed the crowd at Pepsi Center, on any given evening, the player that put most of the butts in the seats would be Duchene. Not cool that he has to prove himself why everyone else gets to be paid like a game changer.

He only signed a 2 year deal. After next year, if he continues like this, he's going to get PAID and rightfully so.

Trust me, hes not starving now.

 

[Avsboy]

I'm hoping RoR only gets the $6.5 million for one year and the Avs manage to talk him into a longer term contract for a much more reasonable $4-5 million a season. I'm hoping RoR produces, but not enough to justify more inflated contracts. Knowing O'Reilly, though, this scenario seems like a remote possibility at this point. RoR won't be in an Avs jersey long because he likely won't be qualified at $6.5 million and will refuse to take a pay cut.

And I really don't care. Keep him around at a cap hit of $5 million for two years, let him help out, then cut him loose if he doesn't realize that he's not the second coming of Sakic. By then I expect the Avs to have other centers in the pipeline and for the Stastny situation to be solved.

 

[AvsWraith]

He only signed a 2 year deal. After next year, if he continues like this, he's going to get PAID and rightfully so.

Trust me, hes not starving now.

It's not about starving, it's about respect.

 

[PeterTheGreat]

What gets me the most pumped and excited is the fact that we may finally get to see what our team looks like with BOTH Duchene and O'Reilly firing at the SAME TIME.

We've never had them both playing lights out at the same time. When Duchene was firing his first 2 years, Radar was good but not nearly the offensive threat he is now. Last year when Radar was playing awesome, Duchene was struggling mightily.

Now we got Duchene playing at the highest level hes ever played, Staz is even contributing well with Landy, and hopefully a highly motivated Radar should be devastating for opponents. Eventually I'd like to see Sacco load up the top six with Dutchys line and a Staz/Radar/Landy line and ride em 20+ minutes each. If were gonna make the playoffs it'll be on the backs of those six, Varly and EJ.

 

[Nihiliste]

I'm hoping RoR only gets the $6.5 million for one year and the Avs manage to talk him into a longer term contract for a much more reasonable $4-5 million a season. I'm hoping RoR produces, but not enough to justify more inflated contracts. Knowing O'Reilly, though, this scenario seems like a remote possibility at this point. RoR won't be in an Avs jersey long because he likely won't be qualified at $6.5 million and will refuse to take a pay cut.

And I really don't care. Keep him around at a cap hit of $5 million for two years, let him help out, then cut him loose if he doesn't realize that he's not the second coming of Sakic. By then I expect the Avs to have other centers in the pipeline and for the Stastny situation to be solved.

"You've got to get as much as you can when you can". Good luck getting Rayan to back off the 6.5 qualifying amount.

If he scores over 60 points I can't imagine the sense of entitlement you'll see from this guy.

 

[klozge]

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche...-oreilly-practices-will-play-against-columbus

I hate how Dater takes a quote out of context to make O'Reilly looks bad

"It's a business, and you've got to get as much as you can when you can,"

When the full quote is:

“You can’t play hockey forever. If I was to blow my knee, who’s to say that I would be welcomed back. It’s a business and you’ve got to get as much as you can when you can.â€

He knows that many Avs fans love to read that. The O'Reilly witch hunt is the flavor of the day. The sad thing is, most people will eventually stop to care all that much but Dater will go on and on.

 

[Pokecheque]

Sportswriting is so much about the scandals and drama off the ice/field/court moreso than anything happening on it. It's one of many reasons why I don't read Sports Illustrated or even tune it to ESPN anymore. You should read Deadspin's scathing article about how Skip Bayless's inanity took the entirety of ESPN down with him.

The sad truth is that this sort of garbage sells, and that's why they do it. People love a good trainwreck.

Disappointed by Dater's and Chambers' baiting in their coverage of this.

 

[agentblack]

I bet he scores on his first shift.

 

[Unaffiliated]

The Rangers' offer was also appealing to Sakic because it would be his only chance to play (on an NHL team) with Wayne Gretzky, his boyhood idol (who was a pretty good player, I've been told).

 

[Ceremony]

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche...-oreilly-practices-will-play-against-columbus

I hate how Dater takes a quote out of context to make O'Reilly looks bad

"It's a business, and you've got to get as much as you can when you can,"

When the full quote is:

“You can’t play hockey forever. If I was to blow my knee, who’s to say that I would be welcomed back. It’s a business and you’ve got to get as much as you can when you can.â€

Does that make it any better?

 

[ABasin]

FYI - Matt Duchene texted Ryan O'Reilly about 20 minutes after the Calgary game. Don't know the context, but welcomed him back basically. In case anybody was worried about ill will from Duchene or anything. Matty D's not like that, I was glad to hear that bit of news.

He's very happy to be back with his teammates and his coaches, who he honestly gets along with great. You can't expect him to come out and say positive things about management or the organization... yet, at least.

No, that'll take awhile. Might take more than awhile. I still think it's really humorous how this 22 year old kid took it to the arrogant Lacroix regime. Good stuff.

But mostly, I'm happy because the Avs will ice a better hockey team tomorrow.

I hope O'R's in game shape.

 

[Avs_19]

It's going to be weird seeing him in that #90 jersey.

 

[member 116861]

I know it's just a number but #37 was so perfect for him, I don't like him switching to #90.

 

[Gumballhead]

Does that make it any better?

Yes. I am sure I don't need to tell you this but professional athletes aren't like most people - they have a reasonably small window to make large amounts of money, and if something happens to them like an injury where they aren't as good afterwards they are screwed, or at least that incredible earning potential is gone. You don't see that many athletes in any sport taking less money, though it does happen. It keeps being said that none of us would try to earn less money in our lives, so why expect it from these guys?

It seems incongruous to a lot of people that a young guy who is a rink rat and seems like he'd play for free would also be one of those guys trying to get paid as much as he can, but you can't really blame him. Management surely is never going to overpay someone just because they like them and want them to have more money -- there's two sides to the business. Dater's edited down quote made him sound like an NBA player talking about having to feed his kids.

 

[Adama0905]

Can't imagine there's absolutely no ill will about the whole situation from the team. Especially a guy like Doucher, who licked his chops after a bad season, took a contract that was probably smaller than he could've gotten, and has worked his ass off to be the best player on our roster again. I know they all say it's a business, but it'd be pretty hard to look at a guy's salary and be just completely impartial about it, in my opinion.

Bottom line, RoR does not deserve to make 6.5 next season. He deserves it much less than Stastny did when he signed for his 6.6, so I just don't see any way in hell this turns out to be a good contract in the least. I just don't see him ever turning in to a 6.5 player, and the fact that our QO would have to be that much makes me think there's no way he's on our roster in a year and a half.