Ryan O’Reilly (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
As expected in recent days — despite all the weeks of reasoned speculation and rumors circulating predicting the contrary — Ryan O’Reilly remained with the Avalanche when the trading deadline passed Monday.
“It’s nice not to be somewhere else and to be able to focus on playing hockey and trying to get in the playoffs here,” O’Reilly said after practice Tuesday. “It’s nice to put that behind me.”
On Saturday night, , saying that barring a stunning offer, the Avalanche wasn’t going to trade any of its “core” players. He also again emphasized that O’Reilly has a year remaining on his contract and the Avalanche felt no pressure to trade him, but he added the goal would be to work out a contract extension with him over the summer to avoid this becoming reminiscent of the Paul Stastny situation of 2014.
That’s when it could get sticky, and there is no way Sakic and the Avalanche will take a chance of O’Reilly becoming an unrestricted free agent in July 2016 and signing elsewhere with Colorado getting no compensation.
“It’s a relief, too,” O’Reilly said of Sakic’s comments. “You never know what’s going to happen, what to expect, so by him saying that, it puts a little confidence going forward that I’m part of the picture.”
Despite the contentiousness in the O’Reilly camp’s past negotiations with the Avalanche, and the offer sheet he signed with Calgary in 2013 before the Avalanche matched it, he did reach agreement with Colorado on a two-year, $12-million deal on the scheduled day of an arbitration hearing last July.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
