Sudafederov said:
Might not be as neat and tidy as other cases.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2014/07/18/ryan-oreilly-avs-preparing-wednesday-arbitration-date/18909/
It's definitely a high quality piece. I mean when journalists tell you that "I told the Avs they should have signed him" and "they didn't like it when I did it", it is clearly an article based on far more than just facts. Arbitration means very little in terms of long-term deals. They could very easily go to arbitration, have a 1-year deal and then work out a long-term contract in training camp that kicks in the following year.
O'Reilly has some pretty solid numbers, but his career high is still 64 points in 80 games. He's very good defensively but I think it is a reasonable approach to get one more year out of him to assess whether he is legitimately a 7+ million dollar player on a long-term deal. He's 24 with 5 seasons under his belt. The Avs have his rights for 2 more years regardless of the outcome of the arbitration hearing. He's not going anywhere at this point in time.