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

Ryan Reaves has not worked out thus far with the Toronto Maple Leafs, though any Montreal Canadiens fan could tell you that and has similarly revelled in it.

I’m not exactly sure what Leafs GM Brad Treliving was thinking when he decided to sign Reaves to a three-year deal with an AAV of $1.35 million. Well, actually, I know exactly what he was thinking, but whatever it was hasn’t been there thus far.

It’s no secret why Reaves is in Toronto’s lineup night after night, with the Manitoba native having built a reputation as the NHL’s No. 1 heavyweight since making his debut in the 2010-11 season. After a stint as a fan-favourite in both Vegas and New York, Reaves had some intrigue as an impending UFA after a solid season with the Minnesota Wild.

Having finally made it past the first round for the first time in nearly two decades last season against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs just seemed to rescind themselves to a Florida Panthers squad they, in all likelihood, could have beaten.

After setting the tone early on, playing a physical, fast-paced style, Florida suffocated the Leafs offence with Sergei Bobrovsky playing some of the best hockey of his career. Toronto couldn’t keep up offensively and lacked any real physicality of their own, with no one there to defend stars like Matthews and Mitch Marner when they were being beat up game after game.

Thus, the Leafs saw only one viable option as to how to improve this team and give them exactly what they need to win. Unfortunately for them, it happened to be the incorrect option, and Reaves hasn’t looked anything like a player anyone in the NHL needs to be scared of.

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.

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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