The Minnesota Wild added some team toughness on Wednesday, acquiring Ryan Reaves from the New York Rangers in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round draft pick. Wild GM Bill Guerin said on the idea of adding Reaves, “It’s not for the fighting. He’s a biiiiigggg personality. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s got swagger. We’ve been missing that. The energy he brings is really good. And size. He’s gonna help us get our identity back.”
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This move doesn’t come as a major surprise, as Reaves had reportedly been frustrated with his lack of playing time this season with the Rangers. Now, he will get a chance to get in the lineup more often with a Wild team who has been lacking team toughness since letting Nic Deslauriers walk in free agency this summer.
That said, aside from toughness, Reaves won’t add a ton to a Wild lineup that has struggled to put together wins this season. The 35-year-old, while being the NHL’s undisputed heavyweight, doesn’t provide much of anything else. In 69 games last season, he had just five goals and 13 points. In 12 to start the 2022-23 campaign, he has been held pointless.
It will mark the third team in four years for Reaves, who has been moved around plenty as of late. Overall, the 767-game veteran has spent time with the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins, Vegas Golden Knights and the Rangers. For each team, he was brought in due to their respective general managers (GM) feeling they were getting pushed around too much, and it is likely that Wild GM feels the same way about his roster at the moment.
With the Wild set to play tonight against the Winnipeg Jets, it likely won’t give Reaves enough time to get into the lineup. That said, he has a good chance of suiting up in their very next game on Friday night versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. The hope is that this move can provide a spark to the Wild, who have limped to an 8-8-2 record through their first 18 games of the 2022-23 campaign.
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