Trade chip heading into deadline wants to stay with his team

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Matt Garland
January 29, 2023 (10:48)

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The St. Louis Blues appear to be a team in transition, with two of their most popular players playing on expiring contracts, in Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly.

O'Reilly has had his name in the rumour mill for a little while now. He isn't back on the ice yet, nearly a month after breaking his foot in a New Year's Eve game against the Minnesota Wild.

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In an interview with Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic The Blues' captain was clear:

This is where I want to be. I hope I don't get moved, but I think things will probably progress, especially with the deadline coming up and the talks with that. We'll see how it goes. We're starting to get into that.

O'Reilly went as far as saying he would give the Blues a discount, given his success there.

The soon to be 32 year old has seen his offensive production get cut in half. A player known around the league for his playmaking ability only has six assists and ten goals in thirty seven games. The the Selke trophy winner from 2018-2019 carries and ugly minus 28 showing his defensive game isn't where it needs to be.

O'Reilly carries no trade protection and has a cap hit of $7,500,000. With the current state of the Blues it might be too tough to pass up the opportunity to land some really good future assets for O'Reilly.