O\u2019Reilly<\/a> now has 16 goals and 11 assists through 17 playoff games and was recently awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL\u2019s most outstanding player, as voted by league media. With one more win, Kitchener will secure a spot in the Memorial Cup.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
The Lightning have been open about their \u201cwin-now\u201d mentality, and historically draft picks haven\u2019t been viewed as untouchable assets. Still, the scouting department has been able to find creative ways to build for the future, whether through trades or under-the-radar signings like Dominic James and Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous last offseason. Both were contributors in the postseason and are viewed as part of the organization\u2019s long-term plans moving forward.<\/p>\n
Ten months ago, the Lightning traded top prospect Isaac Howard to Edmonton in exchange for former Oilers first-round pick Sam O\u2019Reilly. Tampa Bay spent the last few years investing in Howard\u2019s development, but the move is starting to look like the right one, as O\u2019Reilly is quickly emerging to be a strong fit for the Lightning\u2019s mentality and style of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he plays the game already, even a small sample we got in training camp, tells me he probably won\u2019t need that much time in order to be able to come here and contribute, because he already plays a pro-style game,\u201d Lightning GM Julien BriseBois said at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he can adjust to the pace and the physicality, as soon as he\u2019s got that figured out, I think his game is already so textbook in how he plays,\u201d BriseBois added. \u201cHe\u2019s got a really mature game that he carries in every night for his junior team or even the national team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lightning prospect Sam O\u2019Reilly continues to make a name for himself. On Sunday, the 20-year-old scored a goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,64070,3224,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":["post-572355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-hockey","tag-lightning","tag-nhl","tag-red-tilson-trophy","tag-sam-oreilly","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116556685883116307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}