Wild acquire enforcer Ryan Reaves from Rangers for 2025 fifth-round pick
The Minnesota Wild’s roster just became a whole lot tougher.
The team acquired forward Ryan Reaves from the New York Rangers in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round pick on Wednesday. Reaves signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract with New York last summer and will become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Minnesota is responsible for the rest of Reaves’ salary in 2022-23 as the deal doesn’t include any money retention.
With this trade, the Rangers will save $1.34 million for the remainder of the season and carry roughly $1.51 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia. The Wild, meanwhile, now feature $2.24 million in cap space with a roster of 23 active players.
Reaves has accumulated quite the travel miles lately as he now joins his third different franchise since 2020-21. After spending four seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights, the 35-year-old was traded to the Rangers in 2021, appearing in 69 games last season.
The right-hander scored five goals and 13 points during his inaugural campaign in the “Big Apple” but went scoreless in 18 postseason games as New York advanced to the Eastern Conference Final.
This season, the 6-foot-2 winger failed to register a point across 12 contests in New York while averaging 8:27 minutes of ice-time per night. He did post 44 hits, four blocks, three shots on goal and three takeaways.
Reaves has played 767 career games between four franchises (St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Vegas, Minnesota), notching 54 goals and 114 points. He also owns 2,645 hits and 992 penalty minutes as a professional.
The Winnipeg, Manitoba native is one of the last remaining enforcers in the National Hockey League. In today’s era, if you’re going to be physical, you also have to find ways to contribute offensively. But it wasn’t always that way.
Fighting was much more prominent earlier in Reaves’ career, particularly during his time with the Blues, where he was involved in 56 career fights. He fought eight times in 28 games during his rookie season, winning half of those bouts. His resume also included 12 AHL fights that same campaign.
At 35, soon-to-be 36, Reaves still finds himself in a fair share of scraps as he was involved in two fights earlier this season, one versus new teammate Marcus Foligno, the other against Nashville’s Tanner Jeannot – both of which he won.
For a team like Minnesota, who ranks 24th in hits (390) this season, the 225-pound veteran will be a welcomed addition to their bottom-six forward group. His opportunities will likely be limited, but he could earn a penalty-killing role in addition to his even-strength minutes.
At 8-8-2, the Wild sit sixth in the Central Division, just two points shy of a playoff position. But after finishing second in the division last season, making the postseason for a third straight campaign, they’ve underperformed thus far.
Hopefully, Reaves’ arrival will spark this current group – both on and off the ice – that enters Wednesday’s slate having lost three of its last four games.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Tlop2000. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.