Ryan O'Reilly

Ryan O'Reilly (born February 7, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL).

He has previously played for the Colorado Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL.

He then moved up to the AAA level, playing for the Huron-Perth Lakers of the Minor Hockey Alliance starting in Minor Atom in 2000–01.

Touted as one of the most talented prospects to come out from the Lakers, O'Reilly then played one year of minor midget hockey with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens in 2006–07 after playing six years of Lakers hockey.

O'Reilly began playing at the major junior level for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) after he was the recipient of the Jack Ferguson Award as the first overall selection in the 2007 OHL Draft.

In his rookie season in 2007–08, O'Reilly put up a solid 52 points in 61 games and was named the Otters Rookie of the Year and Most Sportsmanlike Player while also earning Erie's nomination for the Bobby Smith Trophy.

In the following year, he backed up his rookie year with 50 assists and 66 points in 68 games for the 2008–09 season, and his all-around game was noticed when he was named the Western Conference's best penalty killer.

After the 2008–09 OHL season, O'Reilly was drafted in the second round, 33rd overall, in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche.

O'Reilly was drafted 33rd overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he spent the first six seasons of his NHL career.

He became the youngest player in Avalanche history to appear in a regular season game when he surprisingly made the opening night roster for the 2009–10 season.

He earned his first NHL point in his Avalanche debut on October 1, 2009, against the San Jose Sharks, becoming the first non-first-round draft pick to immediately make the NHL in his first post-draft year since Patrice Bergeron in 2003–04.

O'Reilly later scored his first career NHL goal, a game-winner, on October 15 against Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens.

On October 19, following his strong start to the season, the Avalanche announced that O'Reilly and his fellow 2009 draftee Matt Duchene would spend the entire season with the Avalanche.

Initially leading all rookie forwards in scoring through October, O'Reilly recorded an assist in a 3–1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on October 24 to cap a seven-game point streak, which stood as the longest by a rookie throughout the season.

Suffering an offensive plateau midway through the season, O'Reilly anchored his position as a top defensive forward and penalty killer.

He led the Avalanche in ice time on the penalty kill, culminating in posting two short-handed goals during a double minor penalty against the Columbus Blue Jackets on February 2, 2010, to become the first Avalanche player in history to achieve two shorthanded goals in one game.

He finished his rookie season with the Avalanche with 26 points (eight goals and 18 assists) in 81 regular-season games before making his Stanley Cup playoff debut in a 2–1 victory over San Jose in Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on April 14.

On April 18, he scored his first career playoff goal, scoring the game-winning tally in Colorado's Game 3 1–0 overtime victory over San Jose.

He was credited with the goal after inadvertently deflecting Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle's pass attempt from an improbable angle into the net past goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to put the Avalanche ahead in the series, two games to one.

In his second professional season in 2010–11, O'Reilly remained entrenched on the shut-down third line for the Avalanche.

On November 19, 2010, he appeared in his 100th NHL game, a 5–1 victory over the New York Rangers.

In scoring eight goals in his last 18 games, O'Reilly was able to match his rookie season contribution of 26 points and led the team for a second consecutive season in takeaways, with 72.

In the following year, 2011–12, having established himself as the leading defensive centre on the Avalanche, O'Reilly developed his two-way game and increased his offensive production playing alongside linemate Gabriel Landeskog.

This was recognized as he was named as the NHL's Second Star of the Week for November 28 to December 4 after contributing with seven points in four games, and was leading all Avalanche forwards in ice time.

On January 12, 2012, he appeared in his 200th career NHL game, scoring a goal in a 3–2 overtime defeat to the Nashville Predators.

Despite the Avalanche missing the playoffs for a second-straight season, O'Reilly lead the NHL and set an Avalanche record with 101 takeaways.

He also more than doubled his points output for his previous two seasons combined to finish as top scorer on the Avalanche with 18 goals and 55 points.

As a restricted free agent in the off-season, O'Reilly's protracted contract negotiations with the Avalanche were halted by the expired Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), which incurred the 2012–13 NHL lock-out.

With the lock-out cancelling the start of the season, O'Reilly, in joining his brother Cal, signed a two-year contract with Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) club Metallurg Magnitogorsk on December 7, 2012.

Unlike the exodus of NHL players joining European leagues on short-term contracts, O'Reilly signed a two-year contract with the conditional opt-out clause in returning to the NHL if an agreement with the Avalanche was met.

O'Reilly made his debut for Magnitogorsk in a 5–3 victory over Atlant Moscow Oblast on December 19.

Despite an end to NHL lock-out announced on January 12, 2013, O'Reilly was still unable to come to terms with the Avalanche and initially continued to play in Russia to miss the opening of the shortened 2012–13 season.

On January 24, citing an ankle injury suffered through his 12 games with Metallurg, he mutually terminated his contract in Russia and returned for rehabilitation to North America.

At an impasse with the Avalanche a month into the season, O'Reilly was training with the OHL's London Knights when he ended his holdout on February 28 after signing a two-year, $10 million offer sheet with the Calgary Flames.

With a game coinciding between the two clubs on that day, the Avalanche announced during the contest that they opted to forgo compensation and secured O'Reilly to a contract by matching the Flames' offer sheet.

Due to O'Reilly having signed a contract with a KHL franchise, had Colorado not matched Calgary's offer sheet, he would have had to pass through waivers before returning to the NHL.

In 2015, O'Reilly was traded to the Buffalo Sabres, where he would play three seasons until being traded to the St. Louis Blues in 2018.

Nicknamed "the Factor", he is frequently referred to as one of the NHL's best two-way forwards, winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy in 2019.

With St. Louis, O'Reilly won the Stanley Cup in 2019 over the Boston Bruins and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 2019 playoffs, later being named captain in 2020.

O'Reilly grew up playing hockey near his hometown of Varna, Ontario, with the Seaforth Stars of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA).