It’s been a busy first half of the season for Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Sam O’Reilly. It started with him leaving the organization that drafted him as Edmonton dealt him to Tampa Bay for Isaac Howard. Then he was named to Team Canada for the World Juniors where he netted 8 points (4 goals, 4 assists) in 7 games on his way to a bronze medal. Now, he’s leaving the only junior hockey team that he’s ever played for as the London Knights have traded him to the Kitchener Rangers for a bevy of draft picks.
London, the back-to-back Memorial Cup champions sent O’Reilly, Jared Woolley, and a 2027 15th-round pick to their rivals in exchange for Kane Barch, Jacob Xu, and, sit down because this will take a while, the following picks:
2nd Round 2026 (Guelph)
2nd Round 2029 (Kitchener)
3rd Round 2028 (Peterborough)
3rd Round 2028 (Brampton)
4th Round 2026 (Peterborough)
4th Round 2027 (Brampton)
5th Round 2028 (Kitchener)
5th Round 2029 (Kitchener)
6th Round 2028 (Kitchener)
6th Round 2029 (Kitchener)
Imagine an entire league where the general managers treat draft picks like Julien BriseBois does. That is junior hockey.
It’s interesting that London, currently in fourth place in the OHL Western Conference, decided to cut bait and send off two of their top players, and to one of their in-division rivals at that. After the deal, general manager Mark Hunter was pretty blunt in his assessment of where the organization stood in the trade wars,
“Everybody really added up, too (among the contenders). They had more assets in the bank this time. The last few years, I used assets for (Ryan) Winterton and (Cam) Allen last year. It’s hard to keep ahead of the game and you need to keep things moving in that way. I didn’t have enough assets (to add top players this year.”
Multiple deep runs had drained his draft capital and at some point Hunter knew the organization had to restock.
O’Reilly brings his leadership skills to a Kitchener team that has loaded up for a deep run. The fifth-ranked prospect in the most recent Top 25 Under 25, had 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) in 28 games, which would rank fifth on the Rangers team. Not only will help them score, but his defensive skills are exactly what Kitchener can use as they chase an OHL trophy. As a 19-year-old, this is probably his last shot at another title.
