Ryan O'Reilly can become a restricted free agent in July and the Avalanche will need to qualify him at $6.5 million to retain his rights. If that happens then O'Reilly would be the highest-paid player on the team. Colorado can agree to a different contract number with O'Reilly instead or they could decide to wait until Feb. 28 to try to trade him. His previous contract negotiations with the Avalanche were a messy situation and that might happen again. O'Reilly has 14 goals and 14 assists in 41 games this season.