Ryan O'Reilly hasn't had the best season among some lofty expectations in Nashville, and some recent comments might show he's a bit sorry he left Toronto.
Spurning the Maple Leafs in favor of a deal in the Music City, Ryan O'Reilly's 2024-25 season may just have him regretting leaving the team in the first place. Struggling to have any consistency, Nashville is ten games under .500 and looking like they overspent on a lot of their big splashes.
Things could turn around and they could finish respectably, but with the way things have been, that's very unlikely.
It's also been a rough year for O'Reilly both offensively and defensively, with some recent comments feeling like he has some buyer's remorse heading to Nashville:
I want to be mad. But I'm just not good enough to get mad right now.
So would O'Reilly have been better off in Toronto?
Ryan O'Reilly May Have Burned Some Unrepairable Bridges
While his presence on the team helped the Maple Leafs win their first playoff series in nearly 20 years, there were some pretty serious issues in the locker room with some players and management that rubbed O'Reilly the wrong way.
He had 11 points in 13 games for the Maple Leafs and had nine points in 11 playoff contests.
He was not only very good offensively, but he was invaluable defensively, and had a blistering 62% face-off win percentage in those 13 games. He had only two giveaways to 10 takeaways, and was the anchor on their third line.
It's a bit frustrating to see that O'Reilly left due to some locker room and office turmoil, but with a changing of the guard and a clear focus on winning and improving the team in all facets, he's seen his team flounder and Toronto succeed; that has to weigh on him regardless of the past.
This season, O'Reilly has 42 points in 65 games but has a brutal minus-22 rating and uncharacteristically having nearly double the amount of giveaways as takeaways; something he has never done in his 16-year career.
Unless Nashville turns things around next season, O'Reilly will miss the playoffs once again, and given he had a chance to play with Toronto this year and make perhaps the best run since his Stanley Cup win with St. Louis; it's a bad look.
He didn't want to come back, which is fair play to him. He's his own man and needs to do what's best for his family and for his career.
But that also involves winning, and while he's done so once before, you'd think he'd like to once more before the end of his run.
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