Ryan Reaves has ‘bitter taste’ after how Rangers trade went down

Ryan Reaves has always lived by the principle of ‘You go where you’re wanted’ — and it became clear earlier this season that was no longer the case with the Rangers.

No one is to blame for how Reaves slid down the Rangers’ depth chart by November, when he was scratched for eight of the club’s first 10 games of the month before he was traded to Minnesota on Nov. 23 in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2025 draft. Reaves simply wasn’t providing what the Rangers needed, and what the organization did need was cap space.

Chris Drury did what was best for his team, but as good as the Rangers president and general manager’s intentions were, Reaves feels there could’ve been better communication.

The 35-year-old Reaves partly refuted the notion that he requested a trade, saying that he only pressed for it once he finally received clarity on his standing with the team and heard from his agent that a deal was already in the works.

“That’s a half truth and a half lie,” Reaves said of the trade request before the Rangers took on the Wild on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. “I had been scratched a little bit and I asked what was going on. They said, ‘You’re not going to be playing every game.’ Then I talked to my agent and he found out that there was a trade that was being worked on for a while already with Minnesota. Once I heard that, well, if you’re trying to trade me, I’m not going to stick around just to wait and linger and wait for something else to happen.

“If you’re trying to trade me, you don’t want me, so then I’m going to push it forward and ask for a trade. But I’m not the one who put it in motion, we’ll put it that way.”

General managers aren’t obligated to keep players in the loop concerning possible trades. If they want to do right by their players, however, there should at least be an open line of communication when it comes to their usage. According to Reaves, he was the one to initiate the conversation with the Rangers about his role.

For a veteran who was incredibly well-liked and respected in the locker room, Reaves has the right to feel like management should’ve been more upfront.

“I think I’ve always been honest with my game and with myself to management and coaches,” he said. “For something like that to be going on and not communicated to me, it was a little frustrating. Left a little bitter taste in my mouth, for sure. It’s a business, it is what it is. I ended up somewhere where I’m wanted and I’m happy.”

After he was traded from Vegas to New York in July 2021, Reaves was candid when discussing who he is as a player. And when the writing was on the wall at the end of the Rangers’ playoff run last season, which concluded with him as a healthy scratch in Games 5 and 6, Reaves seemed to carry on as usual while making a conscious effort not to be a distraction.

That was all the Rangers could’ve asked of Reaves, who probably could’ve asked more of the Rangers.

Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant, who coached Reaves for roughly 2 ½ seasons in Vegas and always spoke glowingly of him, said he was caught off guard to hear Reaves felt the way he did about the communication regarding his standing with the team.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” he said. “A little surprised.”

Still, Drury and the Rangers sent Reaves to a team where they knew he would play, which is all that seems to matter to the veteran. As his 36th birthday looms on Jan. 20, Reaves is with a club that wants him and one where he can continue chasing his NHL goals — but that doesn’t mean Reaves doesn’t want to prove his former team wrong.

“I’d be happy to go two-on-one, to be honest,” Reaves said of the possibility a Ranger would challenge him Tuesday night. “That’s what it’s gonna take. You can write that wherever you want to write it.”