The Ryan Reaves experiment has officially come to an end in New York. The heavyweight champion of the NHL is headed to Minnesota after being healthy scratched in all but three games for the month of November. As per Vince Mercogliano, Reaves requested a trade while the team was in Los Angeles, and the move was made rather swiftly, a fifth round pick coming back in return from the Wild. It’s a move that clears his nearly $2 million cap hit from the payroll, and GM Chris Drury is going to have his work cut out for him to stay below the cap ceiling, so it should make his job easier come deadline time.
Now I’m not going to sit here and say this team is doomed without Ryan Reaves. I’m aware the Rangers have won back to back games in which the fourth line performed well without Reaves. What stood out to me was that through out the struggles the team faced in early November, Reaves was continually held out of the lineup at a time when the team seemed low energy and the results matched that. What I am going to say is this. Ryan Reaves was great for the locker room. He is one of the best personalities the NHL has to offer, he’s loved by his teammates and feared by the opposition. Tom Wilson won’t even go near him. This is a bonafide glue guy. He is not on the ice to produce offense, we all know that, he is a deterrent. As long as he’s not a liability, which he hasn’t been any more often than the Rangers’ other fourth liners, he is a net positive to have in the lineup. The stars can play with more swagger because if anyone tries to do anything about it, they have to answer to Reavo. Minnesota Wild fans will come to notice this quickly, and they’ll love it just as fast.
I’ll leave you all with this, in honor of Thanksgiving, a thank you to Ryan Reaves. Thank you for telling Shesty to release us. Thank you for feeding Marcus Foligno and then flexing the belt. Thank you for interviewing the boys in the locker room and showing the fans you have more personality than the rest of the roster combined. Thanks for being a part of the ride to the conference finals last season, and finally, thank you for being a New York Ranger.
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Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend.
The Morning Skate 