Ryan O'Reilly's father writes about the contract talks and the value of his character

[flemingc04]

Saw this on another forum and thought I would share it here. Ryan O'Reilly's dad wrote to a writer at the Denver Post about the ongoing contract talks. The writer got permission to publish the letter about the contract talks and how Ryan's dad has been a large influence to Ryan and his agent during the negotiations because of his perceived value for his son. As we all know, performance and statistics play a huge factor in contract negotiations, but Ryan O'Reilly's dad believes something is much more valuable to a hockey club which Colorado doesn't view the same way.

I don't know how to describe it, but I am sure that any high school English teacher would cringe a bit while reading this:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2013...mpaign=twitter

Ryan is not a superstar based on skill but character. I know this for a fact the players he was yesterday will not be the player he was tomorrow he will continue to grow learn and thrive .

What I took from this: Don't mind the stats Colorado. Invest a lot of money in Ryan's character and don't try to make the other players feel good about themselves by having O'Reilly sign a contract in line with your other young performers. His character is much more valuable than that.

[Estovia]

Good for Colorado not signing him to his demands. He has no rights to do anything except accept an offer sheet, and if anyone in the NHL is willing to give up a 1st & 3rd (or a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd if he gets the dollar value he wants) for O'Reilly, I'm sure Colorado would be more than happy to take it.

O'Reilly is right along the same path that Drew Stafford took over here, getting himself a $4M/yr extension based off of having a good year at the right time. For Colorado's sake, I hope they learn from our lesson. Is O'Reilly better than Stafford? maybe. But statistics don't lie, and right now his are almost parallel to Stafford's.

Too bad the CBA didn't address the fact that with so much money being thrown around the league, the kids need to be reminded that the big multi-million dollar contracts are reserved for people who have earned them through effort and production, not because they had a 50pt season in their 3rd year after posting 20pt seasons the two before it.