*Note: Arizona retains the 50 percent on O'Reilly before sending him to Ottawa. Not St. Louis.
1) Ryan O'Reilly @ 7.5M cap/1.0M salary to ARZ for Nick Ritchie @ 2.5M cap/3.3M salary.
2) Ryan O'Reilly @ 3.75M cap/500k salary from ARZ to OTT for 2023 4th Round Pick+2024 2nd Round Pick

-Ryan O'Reilly does not have any trade protection.
-He is having a rough start. St.Louis would benefit from a change of scenery move.
-They likely don't intend on re-signing Ryan O'Reilly due to age, fit, and cap.
-Despite Ryan O'Reilly's reputation as a star, until proven otherwise it is a buyer's market for any player with cap. Ottawa got a 2nd for Connor Brown, Columbus got a 3rd+4th for Bjorkstrand, Pittsburgh got a 3rd and Ty Smith for Marino, etc, etc. A 2nd for Ryan O'Reilly is an appropriate return.
-Friedman has linked STL to Nick Ritchie.
-STL upgrades at forward (based on current performance). They don't care about who is better long term.
-Ottawa buys low on a player who could help improve their depth after the Norris injury. Because ROR is half-retained, even if he doesn't improve his performance, they should be able to recoup their draft pick by flipping him at the trade deadline. That is assuming they don't keep him as an own rental.
-Arizona retains on Ryan O'Reilly in order to buy cheap cap space to keep them over the floor in the event they sell off other players. Ryan O'Reilly's base salary is 1M. Half retained means Arizona pays 500k for a 3.75M cap cushion. They also shed Ritchie's 3.3M salary which was only against a 2.5M cap cushion.
-For the retention, Arizona fets a 4th round pick. This seems to be the typical payment for teams to retain small real money amounts as third teams either mid-season or at the trade deadline.
-People will raise an eyebrow at Ritchie being as valuable as ROR. Ritchie is on a 54 goal pace so far in his last 34 games with Arizona. It is a small sample size, and there is always a grain of salt that is needed when players put up goals or points on a rebuilding team. Someone has to score. With that said, that's why he's available for a 2nd, and not a 1st. Arizona gets their 2nd for Ritchie, St.Louis shakes things up and frees up cap space, and Ottawa fixes their current center depth issues.

Get real. St Louis won't be trading Ryan O'Reilly for Nick Ritchie and Arizona won't be retaining 50% of O'Reilly's cap for a 2nd and a 4th.

Dude... pass that bong over here.

ROR retained for a 2nd and 4th?? Umm wow. No.

a return of our favorite buddy Nick Ritchie for Ryan O'Reilly.............Ron Caron is rippng off his colored collar in his grave......

Rhea, I'm sure you remember those old Norris division playoff games between the Blues and Leafs with Caron shaking his fists in the GM box while wearing a white dress shirt with a blue collar on it.........those were the good old days......

Horrible trade for the blues. Like wtf is that

Hehe yep.