The Nashville Predators signed center Ryan O’Reilly to a four-year deal with a $4.5 million average annual value per season to kick off their free agency.
O’Reilly is one of the best two-way forwards in the league and has brought home the 2014 Lady Byng, the 2019 Frank J. Selke, and the 2019 Conn Smythe in his 14-year career. He is just nine games short of reaching the 1,000-goal plateau and has 256 goals, 446 assists, and 702 points. What makes O’Reilly special is his ability to control the game and the tempo of play. A career 55.8% at the face-off dot, along with his defensive prowess make it hard for opponents to have possession for long when O’Reilly is on the ice. The Predators add a top-line caliber center to their young center group where O’Reilly can help the development of Juuso Pärssinen and Tomas Novak with his veteran presence.
O’Reilly finished this past season with the Toronto Maple Leafs after getting dealt at the trade deadline from the St. Louis Blues. In his 14-year career, he spent the first six with the Colorado, three with the Buffalo Sabres, five with the St. Louis Blues, where he won a Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe, and a half season in Toronto.
After this signing, the Preds still have just a tick under $17 million of cap space left, according to Cap Friendly, so they have room to make more deals as free agency chugs along.
