O’Reilly, Acciari go to Maple Leafs in 3-way trade with Blues, Wild

Toronto acquired the forwards from the St. Louis Blues in a three-team trade that also included the Minnesota Wild.

The Blues received the rights to forward prospect Josh Pillar from the Wild for O’Reilly, then traded him and Acciari to the Maple Leafs for Toronto’s first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, the Ottawa Senators’ third-round pick this year, Toronto’s second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and forwards Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette.

Minnesota received Toronto’s fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

[RELATED: NHL Trade Tracker]

O’Reilly has 19 points (12 goals, seven assists) in 40 games this season. The 32-year-old forward is in the final year of seven-year contract he signed with the Buffalo Sabres on July 3, 2015, and can become an unrestricted free agent after the season.

He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs when he had 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 26 games to help St. Louis defeat the Boston Bruins in seven games in the 2019 Cup Final.

The moves come ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline on March 3. Toronto (33-14-8) is in second place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. O’Reilly and Acciari each could make his Maple Leafs debut against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, CITY, TVAS, ESPN+).

“There’s a lot of speculation, a lot of rumors, but honestly, I pay no attention to that,” O’Reilly said Feb. 10. “My focus is here.”

Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas recently said that if they could be convinced to part with top prospects or first-round picks, it likely would not be for a player on an expiring contract.

“In regards to rentals, I can’t see that happening,” he said Feb. 9. “But with regards to other options, I don’t think you say no off the hop to anything, but those are very important pieces to us, now and in the future.”

Selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the second round (No. 33) of the 2009 NHL Draft, O’Reilly has 691 points (252 goals, 439 assists) in 978 regular-season games with the Blues, Sabres and Avalanche, and 56 points (22 goals, 34 assists) in 64 playoff games.

Acciari has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in 54 games this season. The 31-year-old forward has 95 points (55 goals, 40 assists) in 361 regular-season games with the Blues, Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins, and seven points (four goals, three assists) in 54 playoff games.

St. Louis (26-25-3) has won three in a row but trails Minnesota (29-21-5) by eight points for the second wild card in the Western Conference. The Blues traded forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola to the New York Rangers on Feb. 9 for forward Sammy Blais, defenseman prospect Hunter Skinner, a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

“Now it’s officially an end of an era and we have good players that played on that team, that are going to be here for a number of years,” St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong said after the Tarasenko trade. “We have younger players that weren’t part of that team (in 2019) or like Robert Thomas, that was a smaller piece of that team that now have to be centerpieces moving forward.

“I think when we made the commitment to the two young players last summer, we understood how that was going to affect the cap and affect decisions moving forward. That’s where we are today.”

Pillar, 21, was a fourth-round pick (No. 127) by the Wild at the 2021 NHL Draft. He has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 13 games for Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League this season.

Abramov, 21, was a fourth-round pick by the Maple Leafs (No. 115) at the 2019 NHL Draft. He has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 34 games for Toronto of the American Hockey League this season.

Gaudette, 26, has 34 points (20 goals, 14 assists) in 40 games for Toronto of the AHL this season. He has 70 points (27 goals, 43 assists) in 218 NHL regular-season games with the Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators. He does not have a point in 10 playoff games.