O'Reilly 'so excited' after Predators' busy off-season, despite no Marner addition
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Nashville Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly, who helped lead the St. Louis Blues to their only Stanley Cup title in 2019, has similar aspirations this year after a busy off-season.
"It's hard to win," O'Reilly said on Monday as a guest on TSN1050's First Up from the Smilezone Celebrity Golf Tournament in Oakville.
"But I think for myself I've got the belief that 'Hey, we can do this' and we've got so many good pieces in the organization, it was nice to see them step up [and make those acquisitions]."
Those roster additions included spending more than $100 million to bring in star forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, as well as defenceman Brady Skjei. They also re-signed star goalie Juuse Saros on an eight-year extension.
"A bunch of us were messaging [one another] just being like 'What is going on right now?' You hear the rumours of what's going down, you try to talk to [management] here and there, but as it's coming through you're just like 'Here we go,'" said O'Reilly.
The Predators have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in nine of the last 10 seasons, with their best run coming in 2016-17, when they lost in the Stanley Cup Final four games to two against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Strong seasons from veterans Filip Forsberg (94 points, a career-high), defenceman Roman Josi (85 points) and O'Reilly (69 points, most in a season since 2018-19) gave upper management enough confidence to make significant roster changes, so O'Reilly thinks.
"The organization sees we've got a window here, you've got [Forsberg] in his prime, you've got Josi in his prime, you just signed Saros in his prime, let's give this a run," O'Reilly said.
"I think last year we showed we did a great job, that we're further along than we thought, we had so many young guys step up and play well, we kind of found an identity and they said [let's go for it.]"
O'Reilly Praises Marner
There was one more addition O'Reilly was hoping for amid rumours circulating earlier in the month.
It was reported by the Toronto Star early in July that O'Reilly strongly pushed general manager Barry Trotz to make a deal to acquire former teammate Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"[Marner] brings so many things, he's so competitive but I think [the biggest thing is] just how elusive he is," O'Reilly said. "The way he can create plays, being off-balance, able to put these pucks in the right areas. Such a competitor but getting to play with him for the short time I did it was so fun, the way he sees the game."
Marner totaled 85 points for the Maple Leafs last season but struggled in their series against the Boston Bruins. He scored one goal and finished with three points in the series as the Leafs fell in seven games, failing to advance past the first round for the seventh time in eight years.
Leafs' GM Brad Treliving has been non-committal when talking about Marner this off-season, as TSN Maple Leafs Insider Mark Masters indicated earlier this month.
"Treliving, on Canada Day, said 'no update on Marner, he's preparing for next season, Craig Berube is exciting to coach him, so it looks like we're trending to him being back," Masters said on an appearance on Sports Centre with Jay Onrait.
Masters continued to say, though, that last off-season Treliving spoke of extending forwards William Nylander and Auston Matthews as priorities, whereas he hasn't identified a potential Marner extension as a priority in this off-season.
For now, O'Reilly is focused on the upcoming season and the challenges ahead, with or without the Maple Leafs' star in the fold.
"It's a long road ahead of us, but just so excited to add these pieces and the organization believing in us and saying 'Hey, can we do this.'"