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Report: Avs want roster player, top prospect for O’Reilly

Ryan O'Reilly

Ryan O’Reilly #37 of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center on March 14, 2012 in Buffalo, New York. The Avalanche defeated the Sabres 5-4 in the shootout. (March 13, 2012 - Source: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

With contract negotiations between Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche going nowhere, teams might want to land the promising center’s rights. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the Avalanche are currently asking for a roster player and a top prospect to get that done.

The 22-year-old isn’t the only restricted free agent to hold out, but he’s the last man standing by far as P.K. Subban signed his deal about two weeks ago.

The Avalanche are struggling in his absence, managing a 4-6-1 record for nine points in 11 games, ranking them last overall in the West.

It’s tough to say what would be an appropriate value for O’Reilly. He topped all Colorado scorers last season with 55 points, but managed just 26 in each of his first two seasons.

O’Reilly’s representatives would argue that was a breakthrough year that matched appropriate ice time (a big jump to 19:32 minutes per game) while the Avs would probably counter that he needs to prove that he can produce like that consistently.

It doesn’t appear that Jamie Benn’s five-year, $26.25 million deal helped set a market for the two sides. The Denver Post’s Adrian Dater believes that O’Reilly won’t play another game with Colorado, so a trade could indeed be plausible.