Treliving has odd reasoning for why the Leafs signed Reaves
The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t exactly go star-hunting in free agency this year.
On Saturday, the Leafs signed veteran forward Ryan Reaves, but general manager Brad Treliving had an odd explanation why.
“You need character on your team and sometimes you need some characters,” Treliving said to a media. “It’s not about fighting and all the rest of it. I just felt both on the ice and in our room and around our team. We needed a little bit more noise and Ryan brings that.”
On paper, that makes enough sense. Reaves is never going to be an offensive all-star, and has a history of playing throughout various lineups as a fourth-line option known for his physical play.
Reaves is coming off a year where he put up five goals and 15 points with the Wild, though also went scoreless in 12 games with the New York Rangers.
But he’s also 36 years old, and Toronto opted to sign him to a three-year contract that will expire when he’s 39 years old, an age which just one skater in the NHL — Toronto’s own Mark Giordano — currently is.
“At the end of the day you’d like them all short, but at the end of the day you want to get the players,” Treliving said. “They wanted him to stay in Minnesota and he was given an opportunity to speak to teams earlier. And we were able to talk to him and work out a deal. We felt like we had to go where we had to get Ryan on board.”
It doesn’t seem to make much sense why Reaves was Toronto’s target they felt the need to admittedly tack an extra year they weren’t exactly thrilled about.
At just $1.3 million per season, Reaves isn’t exactly stunting Toronto from taking on their next big contract, and he’s not going to be the reason any star player comes or leaves the city. But it seems like Treliving didn’t really consider the third option when Minnesota wanted Reaves to stay — simply taking his own interest somewhere else.
We’ll see how this signing ages, but it’s setting up to be an interesting three years.
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