Montreal Canadiens: Ryan Reaves, Mike Brown, and the Rebuild Enforcers

Habs Tried This Tactic With Mike Brown

For as strange as it may sound, the Canadiens have been without a true enforcer in their lineup for many, many years now. While second-year defenseman Arber Xhekaj and fourth-line winger Michael Pezzetta currently serve as Montreal’s go-to tough guys, both of them still have a place in the lineup that isn’t just dropping the gloves.

Pezzetta brings energy, physicality and the occasional nice offensive play, and Xhekaj is as solid as they come on the blue line in regard to both his skating and decision-making. While you can argue Reaves value for the Leafs all you want, the fact of the matter is that if he wasn’t the NHL’s most feared enforcer, he wouldn’t be in the NHL anymore.

While it might seem like a millennium ago now, the Canadiens year after year made a point of giving ice time to players like Reaves, enforcers who didn’t really provide much outside of duking it out with the other team’s top heavyweight. This brings up my main point regarding why Treliving’s decision to not only sign Reaves, but sign him long-term was a misguided one, as said players only serve a role for one kind of a team. A rebuilding one, something the Leafs, well, clearly aren’t anymore.

Look at any Habs roster from the mid-2000s to mid-2010s. Alongside established names like Tomas Plekanec, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev, you had the likes of Mike Brown? Aaron Downey? Greg Stewart? Brad Staubitz?

While it seems like insanity when compared to the modern-day style of play in the NHL and that of the Canadiens in particular, former GMs Pierre Gauthier and Marc Bergevin had a thing for bringing in guys who had to fight for every minute of ice time they saw, literally and figuratively.

The difference is that, in pretty much every season that featured one of these players, Montreal was a bare playoff team or in the lottery and didn’t necessarily have any top-line talent munching at the bit to get some ice-time in the NHL.

The Outdated Enforcer

All of them provided exactly what a rebuilding team needs. Experience, character, a good presence in the locker room, and someone who can give the fans and their team energy when there isn’t much available.

While they couldn’t provide much offensively, or defensively, they served a role which fit well in the context of what the Canadiens were at that time. A rebuilding squad in need of a veteran presence to help mentor the younger players. Reaves has never been a part of a rebuild, even going back to his early days with the St. Louis Blues, and well, it shows.

In Toronto’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, defenseman Timothy Liljegren left the game following a cheap shot from infamous instigator Brad Marchand. Instead of laying a big hit or dropping the gloves, Reaves merely chirped Marchand from the bench briefly and returned to his business.

That business being, averaging 7:49 a night whilst having just four shots on goal over 10 games (yes, really). After Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe rightfully expressed his outrage following the lack of response, Reaves was quoted as saying, “We talked about it, we addressed it in the room, and it will be changed going forward.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but it’s almost baffling that is what Reaves actually did in response to Marchand, and that reply is just a joke, and not a particularly funny one at that, especially to Keefe.

Good Teams Should Be Using Good Players, Not Enforcers

With top prospect Nick Robertson chomping at the bit to get ice time with the Leafs and with a potential trade seemingly on the cards, it’s utterly baffling as to why Toronto continues to play Reaves when it’s clear he doesn’t belong in the NHL anymore.

Is he still the NHL’s best fighter? I mean, sure, fine, whatever, but when he’s only fighting two times every two months, does it really matter? Most players are afraid to drop the gloves with him, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to beat on Matthews and Marner while he just silently chirps from the bench. What about the playoffs then, I hear you ask?

Well, if you seriously think Reaves is going to be a factor, let alone play in the playoffs, then I’d suggest you stay away from the endless barrage of sports betting apps we’re frequented with every intermission of every game (but that’s an entirely different can of worms).

At the end of the day, there is a place for a player of Reaves type in this league, but it’s on a team that the Leafs clearly aren’t at this stage, and Reaves doesn’t have the qualities that make those players useful to a rebuilding team to begin with.

The Mike Brown’s and Aaron Downey’s of the NHL are long gone, but it seems that the remnants of the past still exist somewhere, and unfortunately, it just happens to be with a Leafs team that needs a lot more than what Reaves has brought.

As the 2023-24 season rages on, the Canadiens have gotten off to a fun, fast-paced start with a number of exciting games thus far. As the Maple Leafs look to fully exercise their playoff demons after getting over the initial hump last season, the roster is still working out its kinks, but just 10 games into this season, it seems as though Ryan Reaves, is one such kink that just simply isn’t needed, nor belongs in the NHL anymore.

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