How Boston Bruins are impacted by the Ryan O’Reilly blockbuster trade

On Friday night, Boston Bruins rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs, were involved in a three-team blockbuster trade involving the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild.

The Blues sent captain Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to the Toronto Maple Leafs. St. Louis received prospect Mikhail Abramov, forward Adam Gaudette, the Toronto’s 2023 first-round pick, the Ottawa Senators 2023 third-round pick and Toronto’s 2024 second-round pick.

The Minnesota Wild sent 2019 fourth-round pick Josh Pillar and a 2025 fourth-round pick from the Maple Leafs.

O’Reilly was one of the more prominent names coming out of NHL Trade rumors as the deadline is coming up on March 3rd and the Blues have been cleaning house recently as they traded Vladimir Tarasenko to the New York Rangers on February 9th. The Blues are currently 8 points behind the Wild for the Western Conference Wild Card, and behind the Colorado Avalanche for the 3rd spot in the Central division.

Here’s some reasons why this trade impacts future matchups against the Bruins.

Toronto will be a tougher foe for the Boston Bruins

O’Reilly will be an added piece to an already loaded roster for the Maple Leafs. The Leafs are loaded with Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Mariner.

Adding O’Reilly would make the chances of the Maple Leafs advancing in the playoffs higher and even making the Stanley Cup Final. The Maple Leafs have not won a playoff series since 2004. Since then, the Bruins have won playoff series against the Leafs in 2011, 2013 and 2019. In fact, the Bruins have won six straight playoff series against the Maple Leafs, where they last lost in the 1959 Stanley Cup Semifinals.

In the regular season, currently the Bruins have a 2-1 advantage over the Maple Leafs as they have won the last two games, including a 5-2 win on February 5th. The next matchup between the two teams is on April 6th, where the Maple Leafs could tie the series or the Bruins would win the season series.

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The Maple Leafs are 2nd in the Atlantic division and are 13 points below the Bruins and 1 point above the Tampa Bay Lightning. In the current Eastern Conference standings, the Bruins would face the New York Islanders and the Maple Leafs would face the Lightning. If the Bruins and the Leafs both win their first-round matchup then they would face each other in the Semifinal.

O’Reilly and Acciari will be familiar faces when they face the Bruins

Ryan O’Reilly was on the Blues when they defeated the Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final in 7 games. O’Reilly was the first player to score a goal in four consecutive Stanley Cup finals games since Wayne Gretzky in the 1985 Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and the Philadelphia Flyers. That streak was from Games 4-7, and included a two-goal game in Game 4 and also helped him win the Conn Smythe trophy, and Stanley Cup Final MVP trophy.

This wouldn’t be the first time that O’Reilly was in the Atlantic Division. From 2015-2018, O’Reilly was on the Buffalo Sabres before he was traded to the Blues which included Sabres star Tage Thompson.

Acciari started out his NHL career as a Boston Bruin from 2016-2019 before he signed with the Florida Panthers. While he was on the Bruins, Acciari scored 18 scores, 13 assists, and a +/- of -10 in 180 games. He didn’t score his first goal until March 28th, 2017 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators.

The last time O’Reilly and Acciari played against the Boston Bruins was on November 7th, 2022 when the B’s won 3-1. O’Reilly didn’t score on the three shots on goal that he took against Linus Ullmark and Acciari had no shots on goal.