Sabres deal center O’Reilly to Blues

The Buffalo Sabres acquired three centers and two draft picks, including a first-rounder in 2019, in trading center Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.

On top of that, the Blues also agreed to pay a $7.5 million contract bonus O’Reilly was due by the end of the day.

Heading to Buffalo are veterans Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund, as well as Tage Thompson, who had three goals and six assists in 41 games as an NHL rookie this season. Thompson was the Blues first-round pick in the 2016 draft.

Buffalo also acquired a second-round selection in 2021.

The trade does not come as a surprise after Sabres general manager Jason Botterill declined to rule out the possibility of O’Reilly being traded earlier in the day.

Botterill would only say the asking price will go up if the Sabres were required to pay the O’Reilly’s contract bonus.

“It certainly, to me, changes the dynamic of anything from an asking price or what we’d be looking for from a trade perspective,” he said.

“We’ve always said, if we are going to make any movements on our team, we certainly will look at them because of where we finished in the standings,” Botterill said. “But it would have to make sense to make it, to improve our team.”

The Sabres filled a need at goaltender by signing former St. Louis backup Carter Hutton to a threeyear, $8.25 million deal.

• Paul Stastny caused another ripple of moves in the Western Conference. He left Winnipeg to sign a threeyear, $19.5 million contract with the Stanley Cup finalist Vegas Golden Knights: a spot left open after David Perron returned to St. Louis by signing a four-year, $16 million deal.

Stastny, 32 had 53 points last season plus 15 more in 19 playoff games with the Winnipeg Jets, who lost to Vegas in the Western Conference final.

Vegas forward James Neal is among the more high-profile free agents still unsigned.

• Toronto had the big score landing Islanders captain John Tavares, who agreed to a seven-year, $77 million contract about an hour after the free-agency signing period opened. But the Maple Leafs lost two forwards. James van Riemsdyk left Toronto after six seasons to return to Philadelphia, where he signed a five-year, $35 million contract. Center Tyler Bozak signed a three-year, $15 million contract with St. Louis.

Some of money the Lightning saved by not landing Tavares was spent on signing defenseman Ryan McDonagh to a seven-year, $47.25 million extension, which kicks in next summer.

• In Nashville, the Predators will turn their attention to negotiating a contract extension with defenseman Ryan Ellis, who is entering the final year of his contract. The Ottawa Senators are expected to do the same with their captain, Erik Karlsson.

• Veteran defenseman Jack Johnson signed a fiveyear, $16.25 million contract with Pittsburgh. Johnson, 31, is a 12-year NHL veteran, who spent the past six-plus seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

• The Avalanche added two former Blue Jackets in signing defenseman Ian Cole and forward Matt Calvert to three-year deals. Cole gets $12.75 million and Calvert gets $8.4 million.

• The Arizona Coyotes signed All-Star defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to an eight-year contract extension that averages $8.25 million per year.

• The Rangers agreed to sign restricted free-agent forward Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year, $8 million deal.