Should the Rangers trade for Ryan O’Reilly?

Ryan O’Reilly Last week on Twitter I posed the simple question: Would you trade Derek Stepan straight up for Ryan O’Reilly?  At the time it was just a hypothetical, but last night the Denver Post’s Adrian Dater reported that an O’Reilly trade is likely going to happen. O’Reilly, of course, is the last of the three star RFAs to continue holding out into the season. Both Jamie Benn and P.K. Subban have been playing with their respective teams for weeks, but O’Reilly and the Avalanche appear to be no closer to a deal. O’Reilly reportedly wants five-years, $25 million while Colorado, a notoriously stingy franchise, is unwilling to budge from its offers of two-years, $7 million or five-years, $17 million. There seems to be no resolution on the horizon and it’s become very possible that Colorado will trade its star 22-year-old centerman. The Avalanche presumably wants a #2 center (TSN’s Darren Dreger said a roster player and a top prospect) in return, so Stepan makes sense in that regard...