O'Reilly, Acciari trade to Maple Leafs takes Dubas out of comfort zone

TORONTO --Kyle Dubas doesn't accept suggestions that the Toronto Maple Leafs went aIl-in making a blockbuster trade Friday to acquire forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari because the general manager is in the final season of his contract and has nothing to lose.

Instead, the Maple Leafs are "going for it," according to Dubas, trying to bolster a talented core led by forwards Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and defenseman Morgan Rielly.
RELATED: [O'Reilly, Acciari traded to Maple Leafs from Blues]
"I'd operate the same way no matter what my status was," Dubas said Saturday.
Under Dubas, the Maple Leafs have been reluctant to trade away draft picks, especially high ones, for players without term remaining on their contract. So, Dubas went out of his comfort zone with this trade and, he said, there could be more moves to come.
O'Reilly and Acciari were acquired from the St. Louis Blues
in a three-team trade
that also included the Minnesota Wild. Each can be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
The Blues received the rights to forward prospect
Josh Pillar
from the Wild for O'Reilly, then traded him and Acciari to the Maple Leafs for Toronto's first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, the Ottawa Senators' third-round pick this year, Toronto's second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and forwards
Mikhail Abramov
and
Adam Gaudette
.
Minnesota received Toronto's fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
So the cost was two prospects and a first-, second-, third- and fourth-round pick sprinkled over the next two drafts. Dubas said the price was worth it.
"O'Reilly's pedigree speaks for itself," he said. "His defensive prowess, playoff performance, what he brings to our center position, what he'll bring to our team on & off the ice, we thought was vital for trying to accomplish what we're about to try to accomplish."

What the Maple Leafs would like to accomplish is to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1967. In more immediate terms, what they are trying to accomplish, given that you have to walk before you can run, is to win their first Stanley Cup Playoff series in 18 years.
To that end, O'Reilly does make them a more difficult team to face in the postseason. The 32-year-old won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2019 when he had 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 26 games to help the Blues win their first Stanley Cup.
Toronto (34-14-8) is second in the Atlantic Division, three points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning after O'Reilly had an assist in a 5-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. And with a second consecutive first-round matchup between the two teams looming after Tampa Bay eliminated Toronto in seven games a year ago, O'Reilly's physical grinding presence brings the Maple Leafs an element they've sorely lacked in the postseason.
"As I said before, I don't often like to part with first-round picks for players under contract," Dubas said.
So, why do it?
"I just felt the team had earned it," Dubas said. "We have to put our team in the best position. I'd rather have dealt picks than deal from our reserve of prospects mostly because we know what our prospects are all about."
Regarding a contract extension for O'Reilly, Dubas said he is taking a patient wait-and-see approach.
"You want people to live together before you get married, to take that next step," he said with a chuckle.
With O'Reilly joining Matthews and Tavares at center, the Maple Leafs haven't had this much depth up the middle since Nazem Kadri was traded to the Colorado Avalanche on July 1, 2019. Acciari, meanwhile, was described to coach Sheldon Keefe by a number of players as a guy who is "very tough to play against."
That said, Toronto still could use some depth at the defenseman position and goalie, where Ilya Samsonov has carried the majority of the workload and Matt Murray has dealt with a series of injuries.
"We're always looking to improve the team," Dubas said. "It's hard today right now because you get through these and then everything goes quiet. And then when things start to pick up, people ask you: 'What do you have left to do? What are you looking to do?'
"If there is a way we can continue to improve the team, we'll continue to look at that."