Maple Leafs’ trade for Blues star Ryan O’Reilly shows Toronto’s determination to win, says GM

After acquiring All-Star Ryan O’Reilly from the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas says it’s now or never for a team that has been waiting 56 years to lift the Stanley Cup. .

‘The team has been in the top five in the standings [before]; we are there again this year,’ Dubas told reporters on Saturday. ‘When you’re there, I think your goal has to be that you’re trying to win. And if you’re trying to win, you’re trying to win the Stanley Cup. We are trying to win, and that is the message. If it doesn’t come to that, we’ll all be disappointed.

O’Reilly made his Maple Leafs debut against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

The 32-year-old Ontario native didn’t come cheap. St. Louis acquired Toronto’s 2023 first-round draft pick and Ottawa’s 2024 second-round draft pick and 2023 third-round draft pick from the Maple Leafs along with AHL forwards Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette . Toronto also traded its 2025 fifth-round pick to the Minnesota Wild for the rights to prospect Josh Pillar in exchange for the Wild receiving 25 percent of O’Reilly’s salary.

The trade leaves Toronto with just four picks in the first three rounds of the next three NHL Drafts.

O’Reilly made his Maple Leafs debut against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday

“I’d be lying if I said I don’t care about that,” Dubas said. “But my opinion is that I would prefer to keep the young players that we have signed.”

We know them, we know what they do. We have our projection of what its potential is without exaggeration. Our ability to have some success in that area dictated this. I don’t think it’s sustainable [to keep giving up picks] for the very long term. But I think where we are now, we have to do what we have to do. And with the way those guys have progressed, I felt more comfortable moving the picks.’

O’Reilly, 32, who won the 2019 Conn Smythe trophy with St. Louis, had 12 goals and seven assists in 40 games this season, while Acciari, 31, had 10 goals and eight assists in 54 games. Both players are set to be unrestricted free agents this offseason.

The trade comes with St. Louis sitting eight points away from a playoff spot with a 26-25-3 record going into play Saturday. The Blues traded forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola to the New York Rangers on February 9.

“This, in a crazy way, made my job easier, not harder,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. It would have been hard to sit in front of you today if we had five more wins, which is 10 more points and to tell you why it was a good idea to move Vladimir Tarasenko, why it was a good idea to move Ryan O. ‘Reilly and Mikkola and Noel by draft picks on a team that was fighting for a playoff spot or in a playoff spot fighting for a championship.’

St. Louis had won three in a row after losing five in a row, but recent streaks hadn’t swayed Armstrong.

“It was probably a little bit before that,” Armstrong said. ‘This year we have not been able to find Ground Zero. Good teams don’t fluctuate like we fluctuate, they win three and lose eight, they win seven, they lose five and they win three. What that indicates to me is a team that doesn’t have a foundation and something to fall back on quickly when things go wrong.

Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) receives a commemorative hockey stick from Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas for the ceremony of his 1000th NHL game against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Sand.

St. Louis was looking to build on last season when it fell to the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in six games in the Western Conference Semifinals.

“I was hoping to be here and celebrate a Stanley Cup,” Armstrong said. “I was also prepared to be here and lose in the first or second round and be drilled by ‘well, now that you’ve lost and you have no future assets and you’ve done all this, you’re an idiot.’ ‘I expected to have to be labeled as a guy who doesn’t maximize his assets as well. This year, I didn’t have that.

St. Louis now owns Toronto’s first-round pick and the last of the New York Rangers’ two first-round picks in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, in addition to his own.

Armstrong did not rule out making additional moves before the NHL’s March 3 trade deadline.

“I think the equity in the NHL now is first-round picks,” Armstrong said. ‘However, one thing I know we’re going to do is if we move teams, players, it won’t be for one-year players. We need to scale back again with players that are 25, 26 and under that are on a term contract so they can grow with the next core of players that we have.