Why The Asking Price For O’Reilly Is High

With the last-place Nashville Predators apparently destined to sell this season, Pierre LeBrun has reported that the team want a first-round pick and an A-level prospect for Ryan O’Reilly. And suddenly, the entire hockey world is screaming that Barry Trotz has lost it, that Nashville is out of touch, that the Predators are trying to rob someone blind.

But here’s the truth Predators fans already know: that sky-high asking price isn’t a mistake. It’s a message – a very loud, very intentional, very Trotz-ian message.

You don’t put that price on a player you’re desperate to move. You put that price on a player you’d rather keep, unless someone bowls you over with an offer so comically huge you’d feel irresponsible turning it down.

O’Reilly has been everything Nashville hoped for when they signed him — and more. He’s stabilizing the room, he’s playing hard minutes and still producing, and he’s a walking masterclass in how to play center (and hockey in general) the right way. If anyone is criticizing his production compared to that of other 1C’s, it’s because he’s easily better suited as a 2C – but it’s not his fault that he is easily the best center that Nashville has.

If Trotz truly wanted to move O’Reilly, the ask would be reasonable. Fair. Negotiable. Instead, he slapped a price tag on him that basically says, “Sure, you can have him — if you give us something so ridiculous we’ll be talking about it for 20 years.” That’s NHL GM language for, “We aren’t moving him unless we absolutely have to.”

As Trotz sees it, the Predators aren’t a teardown team. They’re a still-figuring-it-out team. And O’Reilly is the kind of adult supervision that makes the entire youth movement function.

Ryan O’Reilly is proving critical to Nashville’s youth movement

If you want the real reason that O’Reilly’s price is high, look at the kids growing up under his wing.

Luke Evangelista is quietly having one of the smartest, most efficient seasons of any young winger in the league.

He’s playing confident, mistake-limiting hockey that looks a whole lot like… well… Ryan O’Reilly hockey. Evangelista isn’t flashy, he isn’t loud, he isn’t pounding the table for attention — he’s just becoming really good. And he’s doing it next to (and because of) veterans who actually teach, not just occupy locker-room real estate.

Matthew Wood is also quietly thriving. He’s turning into the exact type of power-wing, soft-hands playmaker the Predators envisioned when they drafted him, and O’Reilly has been massive in helping him understand NHL pace, detail and responsibility.

Young guys don’t develop in a vacuum. They develop next to someone who shows them what the standard looks like every single shift. O’Reilly is that standard – so of course Nashville doesn’t want to ship him off unless someone pays them enough to justify ripping that support beam out of the room.

The O’Reilly trade price isn’t a wall – it’s a signal

If a general manager calls Trotz and offers a first-round pick, a legitimate blue-chip prospect and maybe even salary help for O’Reilly, then it would be fair to criticize Trotz for not taking the deal. But if no one pays that price, the Predators keep a guy who centers young forwards responsibly, drives their culture and accelerates the growth of Evangelista, Wood, Joakim Kemell and others.

Sometimes a high asking price is delusion, but this isn’t one of those times. This one is strategy. It’s protection. It’s the Predators saying, “We know what we have. And unless you’re willing to pay a king’s ransom, we’re keeping him right here because he’s helping our kids cook.”

If the Predators trade O’Reilly, it will be because someone made an offer you simply can’t say no to. But if they don’t? The kids keep learning from one of the smartest centers of his generation. That’s not a consolation prize; it’s part of Trotz’s plan.