The Buffalo Sabres head toward the 2026 NHL trade deadline on March 6 with a few glaring needs. The most pressing is a middle-six forward who can win faceoffs, provide secondary scoring and bring leadership to the team's young locker room.
Want to know who checks all of those boxes? Nashville Predators center Ryan O'Reilly, who played three seasons for the Sabres from 2015 to 2018.
Of course, the chances of ROR returning to Buffalo are extraordinarily slim because of the comments he made a few months before the team traded him to the St. Louis Blues in July 2018.
"It's crept into all of our games. Yeah, it's disappointing. It's sad," O'Reilly told reporters about the Sabres' losing mindset at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season. "I feel throughout the year I've lost the love of the game multiple times and just need to get back to it because it's eating myself up and eats the other guys up too."
Those comments are a hallmark moment of the franchise's 14-year playoff drought. Making one of the league's hardest-working players, who was almost always the last person off the ice at practice, lose their love of the game was an indictment of the organization's endless failures.
One year later, O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs while helping the Blues capture their first championship.
Now 34, the 6-foot-1 centerman has remained highly productive for the Predators. He's recorded 35 points (11 goals and 24 assists) across 41 appearances this season. He's also won 55.8% of his faceoffs, a category where the Sabres rank last in the NHL (44.6%).
It's impossible to deny O'Reilly represents a perfect fit for Buffalo as it tries to remain competitive in the crowded Eastern Conference. Yet, it's equally difficult to imagine a scenario where the 2009 second-round draft pick would welcome a return to the Blue and Gold.
The Buffalo Sabres trading for Nashville Predators' Ryan O'Reilly would be a WWE-style shocking twist of a storyline
Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who replaced Kevyn Adams on Dec. 15, didn't want to make any significant waves while the team was riding a winning streak that reached 10 games before ending against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Now Kekalainen will likely begin more seriously pursuing possible upgrades. Defensive depth could be his first target as the blue line group struggles to replace the injured Michael Kesselring and Conor Timmins, but that would probably be a modest deal for a short-term stopgap option.
Working out a deal for a player of O'Reilly's caliber would take more time.
ROR doesn't possess any form of no-movement clause, which hypothetically keeps the door open to a Sabres trade, but Chris Johnston of The Athletic recently reported Nashville will "treat him as if he does" and only send him to an approved destination.
In addition, Johnston's colleague Pierre LeBrun noted O'Reilly's agent, Pat Morris, had so far told interested teams his client still "sees himself as part of the solution" with the Predators, though it was noted that could change before the trade deadline.
Is there any way Kekalainen, who gained a reputation of making bold moves during his time leading the Blue Jackets front office from 2013 through 2024, could convince the three-time NHL All-Star to change his mind about a potentially stunning return to Buffalo?
Perhaps not, but it's a phone call to Nashville that should at least be made based on the fact there may not be a better fit for the Sabres on the entire trade market than ROR.
O'Reilly could slot in as Buffalo's No. 2 center behind Josh Norris. Add in Ryan McLeod on the third line and Peyton Krebs on the fourth, and the Blue and Gold would feature a strong center spine while keeping Tage Thompson the wing as head coach Lindy Ruff has preferred.
ROR, who's scored 98 career power-play goals, could also help boost a Sabres PP that's struggled mightily as of late.
It's such an ideal fit that it'd surely be heavily discussed around the league if not for the history between O'Reilly and the Sabres organization.
In the end, will the veteran center end up calling the KeyBank Center home once again? It's highly doubtful, and it's hard to blame ROR if he wants to keep that door closed forever.
Maybe, just maybe, however, Kekalainen can work some remarkable magic and deliver the Buffalo roster a perfect piece to boost its postseason chances.