Maple Leafs acquire Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari from Blues in three-team trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues in a three-team trade that also includes the Minnesota Wild.

In exchange for O’Reilly and Acciari, the Blues received forwards Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette, a 2023 first-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 second-round pick.

With the Maple Leafs up against the salary cap, the Blues retained 50% of O’Reilly’s $7.5 million cap hit, and the Wild retained 50% of the remaining $3,750,000 before sending him to the Maple Leafs.

For its part in absorbing a portion of O’Reilly’s salary, Minnesota received Toronto’s fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

With 12 goals and seven assists in 40 games, O’Reilly is in the midst of a down season by his standards, but he is only four years removed from leading the Blues to a Stanley Cup and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP. In that Cup run, O’Reilly posted eight goals and 15 assists in 26 games played.

O’Reilly may not be able to play at that level anymore, but he won’t be asked to do that in Toronto. With O’Reilly in the mix, the Maple Leafs have an embarrassment of riches at the center position. O’Reilly will slot in as the Leafs’ third-line center behind Auston Matthews and John Tavares, and not many teams can match that kind of depth down the middle.

Acciari will give the Maple Leafs a little more forward depth, and he has 10 goals and eight assists in 54 games played this season.

After sending Vladimir Tarasenko to the Blues roughly a week ago, the Blues continued their fire sale by getting a plethora of draft picks to use as they try to reconstruct their roster moving forward.