Insider reveals why Ryan O'Reilly refused to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs and signed with the Nashville Predators instead

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Josh tupper
July 3, 2023 (10:29)

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When the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Ryan O'Reilly at last year's Trade Deadline it was an exciting time for the franchise. O'Reilly was a Conn Smyth winning player returning home to play for his hometown team. Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs things didn't workout as planned and the Leafs were eliminated in the second round.

After the playoffs ended O'Reilly was extremely critical of the team and how the coaching staff managed the playoffs. Despite this O'Reilly remained in constant contact with the Maple Leafs about a new contract with the club. However, once free agency opened O'Reilly signed a 4-year contract with the Nashville Predators. The deal pays O'Reilly $4,500,000 per season over that term.

As soon as the deal broke many figured like Luke Schenn's deal that money would be the deciding factor. That was not the case. Multiple reports have since confirmed that the Leafs offered O'Reilly an identical offer.

So why didn't O'Reilly sign a deal? While many have speculated he didn't have a high opinion of Sheldon Keefe, it appears that the real reason was O'Reilly just didn't want to be a member of the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs tried pretty hard to keep him, but the response they continued to get was that he wasn't interested in playing in Toronto.

According to Frank Seravalli the Leafs worked hard to try and sign O'Reilly, but he refused to even entertain the idea of remaining in Toronto. This could be a bad sign for the Leafs and their culture, or ROR could simply have just not wanted to play close to home.