Confirmed with Link: Leafs sign F Ryan Reaves (3 years, $1.3M AAV)

[Fogelhund]

What he does can't be measured on a chart

Why we got him can't be measured on a chart, but it still paints a picture of his hockey "ability". Personally, I think we will look back by the end of the year, and wonder why we did this.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Why we got him can't be measured on a chart, but it still paints a picture of his hockey "ability". Personally, I think we will look back by the end of the year, and wonder why we did this.

If that happens who cares? Just bury the contract

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Team toughness seems to work best when you have different tiers of players who do different things.

Boston is an easy example since we always played them and they always got the upper hand over the past half dozen or so years.

Chara was the "nuclear" option. He was obviously a more impactful player even late in his career compared to whatever Reaves will be, but if your team has the most intimidating guy in the game, you have some built in deterrence and real physical impact.

You had your big bodies, or lunch pail guys or agitators like Backes, McQuaid, Carlo, Foligno, Bertuzzi, Coyle, Hathaway who could hold ground and handle themselves if things got tough.

Then you had a layer of piece of shit guys like Marchand, Krug, DeBrusk, McAvoy who can play chippy, chirp, get into the dirty areas knowing they have the depth of physicality to back them up.

Reeves is da nuclear option you describe well .. Chara was same .. there is a HUGE difference when you have da baddest guy on your bench .. not same as other guys .. although you can achieve similar intimidation factor if you have 6 or 7 6ft5 guys who are all mean and nasty too but those days are long gone

 

[MilkofthePoppy]

What a great add.

""

These Twitter nerds make me sick.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

I think we'll see more from Lafferty now that he will be surrounded with guys like Reaves, Domi, Bertuzzi, Gregor etc. Better environment for the game he wants to play.

Imagine trying to play with an edge knowing Jarnkrok and Kerfoots are your available options for backup.

 

[Stephen]

These Twitter nerds make me sick.

I remember all the bad press Luke Schenn got before he was traded here, how he would be a 7th defenseman, how can you carry a fridge, etc. and yet by Game 1 of the Tampa series he was a folk hero again.

I suspect people will learn to appreciate Reaves for the specific role he’s brought here for.

 

[Hellcat]

I don't disagree with you, but some of the shit that Florida got away with was egregious.

100%

 

[Rob Brown]

I think we'll see more from Lafferty now that he will be surrounded with guys like Reaves, Domi, Bertuzzi, Gregor etc. Better environment for the game he wants to play.

Imagine trying to play with an edge knowing Jarnkrok and Kerfoots are your available options for backup.

To be fair, Jarnkrok and Kerfoot weren't his or anyone else's backups. There were both Schenn and Acciari, as an example.

 

[Hellcat]

Perhaps I miss understood what you said.

My point was Reaves is very capable being a deterrent. Players will hit but how and when will change

100% Players across the board say, when you have players like reaves, it makes you play bigger vs. the know nothing fan who is anti fight, those fans in my experience have never been punched in the face, they dont understand what a deterrent that is. When you get punched in the nose and your eyes water, that is the point you realized you f-ed up. It will never remove the asshats on the other teams for doing asshattish things but it sure will piss off the other teams stars and makes them play smaller when you got an angry Reeves looking to steam roll the next guy who crosses the blueline because one of your Rats gooned Matthews, Marner, Nylander, etc..

Why is Reaves going to be such a deterrent? He'll be 37 by the time the playoffs start. We've already had players like Simmonds, Clifford, and Schenn and by your admission that hasn't worked

9 months ago

 

[DraftSchmaft]

To be fair, Jarnkrok and Kerfoot weren't his or anyone else's backups. There were both Schenn and Acciari, as an example.

The key is an identity shift. You can sense the environment will be different, whereas in the past we add gritty guys but the environment still feels soft.

Identity shift might have good effects on players like Lafferty.

 

[Rob Brown]

The key is an identity shift. You can sense the environment will be different, whereas in the past we add gritty guys but the environment still feels soft.

Identity shift might have good effects on players like Lafferty.

Oh I agree, I just don't think he was looking at Kerfoot or Jarnkrok to back him up.

 

[colchar]

These Twitter nerds make me sick.

Pathetic advanced stats losers who probably never played at a level any higher than House League, if they played at all.

 

[Gallagbi]

Why we got him can't be measured on a chart, but it still paints a picture of his hockey "ability". Personally, I think we will look back by the end of the year, and wonder why we did this.

We all know why, i think the question is whether its logical or useful

 

[Nineteen67]

Reeves is da nuclear option you describe well .. Chara was same .. there is a HUGE difference when you have da baddest guy on your bench .. not same as other guys .. although you can achieve similar intimidation factor if you have 6 or 7 6ft5 guys who are all mean and nasty too but those days are long gone

Everyone should be mean and nasty.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Leafs have had a significant lack of toughness, a critical element of the game, and most notably across the top of the line up where the majority of minutes are played. That same cast of players also constitute some of the most expensive scorers/playmakers in the league.

In Tre's first appearance he made very clear we had to course correct, and there's not an easy counterbalance with lower minute players and no money. So he got the guy branded as the toughest player in the league - if that doesn't work imagine if we didn't have him.

We should be ok with a Reaves putting up 5 goals instead of an 8 or 9 goal alternative. He was a -1 last year. He's buriable by like 100k. It's not a bad idea.

I'm sure people lost their minds after seeing Tatar sign a one year show-me deal with Colorado for $1.5 million while the Leafs are paying Reaves $1.35 million. And honestly it's not entirely unjustified. Reaves is an old enforcer with awful stats, meanwhile Tatar is an analytics darling. Tatar is the type of "smart" signing Dubas would make and would be getting praise from the usual suspects in media.

In theory, a Tatar-Kampf-Jarnkrok line would be a good, defensively responsible third line that could occasionally chip in offensively. However, we've seen that kind of player and signing before, we've seen that type of line before, we've seen that type of makeup with this team, and all we've done is lose. Kerfoot, Engvall, Mikheyev, Kase, Malgin, Kampf, Jarnkrok: all the same tweener type of player that the Leafs have coveted and had in spades and we’ve gone nowhere with them. Can’t chip in offensively when the checking tightens up in the playoffs, can’t play a physical style that wears down your opponents, don’t engage in any extracurriculars, and as good as they are defensively they aren’t so great that we can lock down our opponents and win games 1-0 or 2-1 consistently.

On paper or on a chart, the Leafs probably could’ve gotten better value than Reaves, but is that what this team needs? Do we really need more soft guys who won’t engage with their opponent unless it’s purely during play? Guys that are reluctant to stick up for their teammates and are only too willing to turn the other cheek? Guys who fold when the temperature of a series rises? Guys that are quiet in the room and won’t step on any toes.

I don’t want to come off as if those types of guys don’t have value. They very much do, and Jarnkrok and Kampf especially this season will have to be key penalty killers and be depended upon to slow the momentum of our opponents if they get going offensively. But we can’t have an entire bottom 6 built like that. Hell we had so many of them they’d get into the top 6 as well.

Besides needing guys that can score we need guys that will play with some edge, have some snarl to their game, let our opponents know we’re alive out there. Of course Reaves isn’t in his prime anymore and he could be very useless on the ice for us. But if he’s halfway decent on the ice and his rep and presence in the room are as advertised, that’ll go a long way to changing the culture here, along with Bertuzzi and Domi, plus a whole season of McCabe and Lafferty.

 

[Gabriel426]

That too, but they’re in a different class.

Ideally teach them all to be like a pack of wolves. That’s what turned Tampa around.

This.

They played like a pack against Tampa and right back to who they are against Panthers.

Hope Reaves, Domi, Bert can bring the group to play like a pack all the time.

 

[notbias]

Simmonds never played and couldn't skate. Clifford was decent but against not known to be a hole

When Reaves gets a hold of you, he wants to end you. Just ask Adam McQuaid

Rangers last year got Reaves for Tom Wilson incident. Do you remember Tom Wilson doing anything against Rangers after that.

None of those guys are alpha like Reaves. Last Alpha type of fighter we had was Orr.. nobody messed with the Leafs when Orr was around

Lucic used to hit until Orr got a hold of him.

Didn't Wilson only do one incident? So likely he was going to do nothing after that anyway.

Also, Simmonds was able to play hockey, unlike Reaves.

I think people really overvalue how much someone who is going to play 8 mins a night can affect the game.

Reaves is on a different level than those guys in terms of the physicality IMO.

Schenn is a better hitter.

Simmonds is not that much worse of a fighter.

Reaves does one of those every 30 games, not sure if it is worth it.

I think we'll see more from Lafferty now that he will be surrounded with guys like Reaves, Domi, Bertuzzi, Gregor etc. Better environment for the game he wants to play.

Imagine trying to play with an edge knowing Jarnkrok and Kerfoots are your available options for backup.

What will Bertuzzi do? Get injured?

Reaves will likely be on his like so I can see him being more of a pest, but Domi is irrelevant, and Schenn is a tough guy too and it didn't change Lafferty's game.

 

[notbias]

The key is an identity shift. You can sense the environment will be different, whereas in the past we add gritty guys but the environment still feels soft.

Identity shift might have good effects on players like Lafferty.

We've said this multiple times.

We brought in guys at the deadline who we thought would bring an identity shift.

Reeves is da nuclear option you describe well .. Chara was same .. there is a HUGE difference when you have da baddest guy on your bench .. not same as other guys .. although you can achieve similar intimidation factor if you have 6 or 7 6ft5 guys who are all mean and nasty too but those days are long gone

Reaves is not "da baddest" guy in the league though... definitely one of them, but so was Simmonds.

Against 95% of the teams Reaves is "da baddest", and Simmonds was "da baddest" for 85%... not a huge change.

 

[ACC1224]

The key is an identity shift. You can sense the environment will be different, whereas in the past we add gritty guys but the environment still feels soft.

Identity shift might have good effects on players like Lafferty.

Can't deny that, long overdue.

 

[Mess]

Can't deny that, long overdue.

There is going to be a different feeling when Reaves is on the ice.

Particularly at home where opposition teams come in and believe it will be an easy no contact event.

 

[ACC1224]

There is going to be a different feeling when Reaves is on the ice.

Particularly at home where opposition teams come in and believe it will be an easy no contact event.

Bertuzzi and Domi will help as well. Just one guy on the bottom lie isn't enough.

 

[LaPlante94]

Didn't Wilson only do one incident? So likely he was going to do nothing after that anyway.

Also, Simmonds was able to play hockey, unlike Reaves.

I think people really overvalue how much someone who is going to play 8 mins a night can affect the game.



Schenn is a better hitter.

Simmonds is not that much worse of a fighter.

Reaves does one of those every 30 games, not sure if it is worth it.



What will Bertuzzi do? Get injured?

Reaves will likely be on his like so I can see him being more of a pest, but Domi is irrelevant, and Schenn is a tough guy too and it didn't change Lafferty's game.

You say this now but when it comes to smaller skilled guys those 8 minutes make or break our team apparently if we don't play them.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

We've said this multiple times.

We brought in guys at the deadline who we thought would bring an identity shift.



Reaves is not "da baddest" guy in the league though... definitely one of them, but so was Simmonds.

Against 95% of the teams Reaves is "da baddest", and Simmonds was "da baddest" for 85%... not a huge change.

It is likely him or Lucic and i think it might get settled in 1st leafs vs bruins game .. i suspect one will end up with a broken eye socket .. that fight may decide how far leafs go next year .. can't wait to go to that game

 

[notdoneyet]

I want reaves to grab Bennett the first time we play Florida and take the instigator and pound on him when he turtles.
Then when we play Anaheim pound on Gudas the same way
f*** the instigator penalty send a message not to f*** with us this year

 

[notbias]

It is likely him or Lucic and i think it might get settled in 1st leafs vs bruins game .. i suspect one will end up with a broken eye socket .. that fight may decide how far leafs go next year .. can't wait to go to that game

Reaves still needs to prove he can handle Lowry and MacDermid.

You say this now but when it comes to smaller skilled guys those 8 minutes make or break our team apparently if we don't play them.

I just want a 4th line that I am not nervous will get scored on when the other team gets a mismatch.

They don't need to be small skilled guys, just not bad at hockey would be a start.