Brad Treliving Reveals Why the Leafs Signed Ryan Reaves Long-Term

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Julien Trekker
July 2, 2023 (10:37)

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Brad Treliving surprised many people by signing Ryan Reaves. However, it's a great move.

For years now, the Leafs have had trouble finding the necessary grit to win in playoffs.

Reaves might be the grittiest out there. His personnality and his style on the ice is truly what was missing in Toronto.

During an interview, Treliving explained his decision to bring in Reaves.

"You need character on your team and sometimes you need some characters. 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."

"The one thing in talking with the staff and looking at this group. It's a quiet group. I think bringing some personality to it - not to say we don't have personalty on our team - but I think having a presence like Ryan will be a real positive influence for us."

"Reaves can still get in the forecheck and make things difficult for the opposition."

Signing Long-Term

A lot of people think that Treliving overpaid Reaves with his 3y x $1.3M AAV. But Treliving explained that he did what he needed to do to get him.

"At the end of the day you'd like them all short (term) but at the end of the day you want to get the players. 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."