Is Ryan O'Reilly the most underrated forward in the NHL?

[CanadienShark]

He also played in his draft+1 season as a 2nd round pick. Is there another player that has done that?

Bergeron and Vlasic I think.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Bergeron and Vlasic I think.

Aho for the Isles was a late round pick last summer and played I think 26 games this year.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

Why??? Since lockout Montreal missed playoffs twice, once when Carey Price was injured, other time when Price sucked... So, unless you think Price will never be good again, I think its worth to adress position of need. Unless you are one of those who represent that (stupid IMO) "cup or bust" mentally, and actually believe that its better to be #1OA than SC runner-up. Then good luck with "rebuild"...

The landscape in the division is completely different now.

We have a lot of holes, adding O’Reilly only fills one of them. We still need (2) Top 4 LD, we still need a 2C as Drouin is not cutting it and Danault is more of a 3C.

If the team still had Sergachev&Subban I’d feel a lot better about adding O’Reilly.

 

[Aladyyn]

If the Sabres had a player of near Patrice Bergeron calibre in Ryan O'Reilly, they wouldn't be nearly as terrible as they have been the past few years. Seems like we've been hearing about how great of a two way player O'Reilly has been since he broke into the league almost a decade now but he's almost never part of even respectable teams. Hard to reconcile that when he's supposed to be such a key ingredient.

This isn't basketball, bud. The Sabres have 3 very good players, about 4 pretty good players... and then a bunch of trash. That's why we're bad. Not because O'Reilly isn't good enough. He's f***ing fantastic.

 

[Hunter368]

Is he under rated? Nope, I don’t see people under rating him ever. Good player

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Good player but I don't see how he's in Bergeron's class.

In addition to not being the contributor Bergeron is, (.76 Career PPG for PB, .65 PPG for ROR), the advanced stats say the gap's yuge when it comes to driving play at even strength.

Career 58% and 6.6% Rel Corsi for Bergeron, 50% and 2.8% Rel for ROR.

 

[Aladyyn]

Good player but I don't see how he's in Bergeron's class.

In addition to not being the contributor Bergeron is, (.76 Career PPG for PB, .65 PPG for ROR), the advanced stats say the gap's yuge when it comes to driving play at even strength.

Career 58% and 6.6% Rel Corsi for Bergeron, 50% and 2.8% Rel for ROR.

Now give us the RelT stats instead.

Oh and start both players at 22 to make it fair.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Now give us the RelT stats instead.

Oh and start both players at 22 to make it fair.

why would I do your homework? I posted some numbers, if you have some that might refute or give context to them, I'm willing to listen but i'm not gonna post em for you.

 

[The Kingslayer]

He was before he went East. Now everyone sees how great he is. Ya'll should have believed us when we said ROR was a great player.

 

[Dr Quincy]

He's really super dupery awesome. Sabres should keep him.

 

[Aladyyn]

He was before he went East. Now everyone sees how great he is. Ya'll should have believed us when we said ROR was a great player.

I wish. Even a lot of Sabres fans somehow don't after 3 seasons...

 

[The Kingslayer]

I wish. Even a lot of Sabres fans somehow don't after 3 seasons...

Thats pretty sad. Its not ROR's fault he doesnt play goaltender.

 

[Pens x]

If the Sabres had a player of near Patrice Bergeron calibre in Ryan O'Reilly, they wouldn't be nearly as terrible as they have been the past few years. Seems like we've been hearing about how great of a two way player O'Reilly has been since he broke into the league almost a decade now but he's almost never part of even respectable teams. Hard to reconcile that when he's supposed to be such a key ingredient.

Look at some of those teams he’s played on; no one player would help that much.

 

[Pens x]

Jake Guentzel gets no respect

 

[tony d]

He's a solid player but to me he's over rated if anything.

 

[tucker3434]

He used to be, but now that he’s been in the league almost a decade, people have a pretty good idea who he is.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Who?

 

[zar]

Over and over when ROR's name comes up on this forum and elsewhere people opine he's an elite 2C or a lower tier 1C. The numbers say otherwise though, those that put all the emphasis on point totals will disagree and that's a bias that dominates the sport from the fans, the media and management. Sportsnet this past September did quite an exhaustive analysis ranking NHL centers using the past 3 seasons of stats (2014-2017) and ROR ranked 8th. Today I see Sean Tierny @chartinghockey tweeted a ranking of NHL players value relative to their salary cap hit. ROR ranks 11th among skaters. And yet people still think he's overpaid. The numbers say not only is he a 1C but he's actually top 10. The stink of Buffalo's failures unfairly is projected onto ROR.

McDavid was still in his ELC last year... how could they rank anyone higher than him in that chart. This analysis lost all credibility at that point. MacKinnon ranked below Zetterberg? Scheifele doesn't make the list?

O'Reilly is a very good player and he does get that recognition... he is a low end 1C... he has never proven otherwise. I see him as a Bergeron-lite.

 

[glucker]

Yes everybody agrees that ROR is a helluva player but when trades are proposed fans of teams who have interest in him shout the ask is much too high because after all ROR is just an elite 2C. Hahaha dumb Habs fans wouldn't even trade the 3rd overall for a player at the position they need desperately who is top 10-15 at that position who is 27 years old, not old.

Habs are in a weird limbo. Either they go full rebuild, and shed Price and Weber, or they make win-now moves, to take advantage of these guys in their primes.

As a Leaf fan, I hope they go the win now or retool on the fly method the Leafs tried with Burke... but if I were GM, I’d be committing to the full rebuild, which means keeping that 3rd OA.

 

[Stephen]

The Oilers sucked with a 100+ point Connor McDavid. Hockey is a team sport, and Buffalo as a team, is not very good.

Ryan O'Reilly has been in the NHL for a decade now and he has 7 playoff games to show for it.

Point is, if you're going to compare him to a two way Selke winning franchise center like Bergeron, that's some lofty praise. And when teams are in possession of those players, they usually find themselves getting better in a hurry because those kinds of players are special and you build winning programs around them.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Those analytics obviously over-estimate O'Rielly's impact on the ice, partially due to his off-ice teammates being glorified AHL'ers. His GM is rumoured to be seeking a "Mike Richards return" for his services, which is a rather large return. He's a core player on a team that hasn't shown any improvement during his tenure, despite expectations of the opposite. That may not be his fault, but he has yet to do anything worthy of commendation.

 

[Warden of the North]

I dont think so. He gets quite a bit of love amongst the Canadian media.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Thats pretty sad. Its not ROR's fault he doesnt play goaltender.

The goaltender has nothing to do with the absolute lack of goals scored by the team. I get that ROR can't do it by himself, but Eichel, ROR, Reinhart, Kane, Okposo and Risto should have been enough to not be the worst offensive team in the league, no matter who was on the 3rd and 4th lines or who was coaching.

Not his fault, but BUFF's main problem this year was not goaltending (not that it was good either).

 

[The S5]

No, he isn't under rated.

 

[sabremike]

Ryan O'Reilly has been in the NHL for a decade now and he has 7 playoff games to show for it.

Point is, if you're going to compare him to a two way Selke winning franchise center like Bergeron, that's some lofty praise. And when teams are in possession of those players, they usually find themselves getting better in a hurry because those kinds of players are special and you build winning programs around them.

The "Taylor Hall is a loser who never made the playoffs" talking point/narative says hi.