I played Sim golf in my friend’s garage yesterday with a few lads when the Leafs/Ryan Oreilly trade story broke.

“Dubas traded for Ryan O’Reilly,” Pete said in the middle of my backswing.

Two long-standing Leaf fans told Pete he was full of shit until he showed them this post, and they flipped out like 12-year-olds.

St. Louis will retain 50% and Minnesota will retain 25% of O’Reilly’s salary as part of the trade.

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 18, 2023

Somehow, Kyle Dubas convinced the Blues and Wild to pay O’Reilly’s Salary for some draft picks and a case of Blue Light.

The best two-way center available now a Leaf for a bunch of draft picks? It’s Gandalf-level shit.

Source: The Wild will retain 25 per cent of O’Reilly’s total salary as an intermediary in the trade. In exchange, the Maple Leafs will send Minnesota their own fourth-round pick in 2025. Right-wing prospect Josh Pillar is also heading from Minnesota to Toronto to complete the trade.

According to CapFriendly.com, O’Reilly’s $7.5-million cap hit for the remainder of the season will be divided as follows. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

• St. Louis retains 50% ($3.75M)
• Minnesota retains 50% of the $3.75M ($1.875M)
• O’Reilly joins Maple Leafs with a cap hit of $1.875M

With this move, the Maple Leafs now have one of the more formidable centre units in the NHL and are clearly going all-in on competing for the Stanley Cup. In O’Reilly, Toronto is slotting in a former Conn Smythe and Selke Trophy winner who can play in all situations.

The Leafs’ path to a cup might suck harder than it’s ever sucked before.

Tampa and Boston are still INSANELY good hockey teams, and half-measures at the trade deadline would have made the Leaf’s fan base crazy. Getting O’Reilly was a financial pipe dream in the salary cap era until Dubas sweet-talked Bill Guerin and Doug Armstrong into doing us a solid but eating a few million so Kyle could keep his job, AAND maybe win a cup.  And Dregs doesn’t think Dubas is done.

Could we see a Cychrun or a Klingerberg in our future? Maybe a little Goatending upgrade at the Matt Murray position?  At least Leaf fans don’t have to sit through 12 hours of pointless trade deadline TV, thanks to Kyle doing this a couple of weeks in advance (very Lou Lamoriello of him).

If the Leafs decide to put O'Reilly on the wing, it could look something like this. pic.twitter.com/qONFbSApOw

— Daily Faceoff – Fantasy (@DFOFantasy) February 18, 2023

One down, three to go.

4 “Doable” Trades for the Maple Leafs at the 2023 Trade Deadline