It was quiet in the Minnesota Wild dressing room last season as Wild general manager Bill Guerin casually strolled from stall to stall, making chit-chat with his players. And according to Ryan Reaves, maybe a little too quiet.
In the background, music played from what Wild forward Marcus Foligno called a “s—-y” stereo system, one that wasn’t exactly adding much energy to the dressing room.
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Reaves was a newcomer to the team, having been traded from the Rangers on Nov. 22, 2022. But he’d heard enough.
“So (Reaves) just called out (Guerin) in front of the guys,” Foligno told The Athletic. “He’s like, ‘Get off your wallet, get the boys a nice stereo.’”
Foligno’s face lit up with excitement at the time as Guerin and Reaves went “back and forth,” just as the two might have gone toe-to-toe on the ice, had their careers overlapped. And just as Reaves has done many times before on the ice, he didn’t back down from the person in front of him.
“Before we knew it, a week later we had a new Sonos system,” Foligno said, with a sense of joy and pride in his voice. “Whereas some guys were tiptoeing around (Guerin), wondering, ‘Should we ask him (about the stereo system)?’ Reaves just said, ‘No no, we need a new stereo system. This is the national league. What’s going on here?’ He gets things done and I think that’s what we all appreciate about him.”
And that assertive personality buoyed by a no-nonsense attitude could end up being what his new Maple Leafs teammates will appreciate about him too.
Saturday’s signing of Reaves is not without debate. Reaves is 36, has plenty of hard miles on his body after 13 NHL seasons but was still given a three-year contract ($1.35-million AAV). On the ice, his game has slowed in recent years and his offensive production has waned. You can read the signing as a risky play given that the Leafs, as their playoff run proved, need offence.
But new Leafs GM Brad Treliving believed the Leafs group as assembled needed to add a different kind of spice to the pot.
“I think every team needs personality,” Treliving said Saturday. “One thing in talking with the staff and looking at this group: It is a quiet group. Bringing some personality to it … not to say we don’t have personality on our team, but I think having a presence like Ryan will be a really positive influence for us.”
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Foligno doesn’t just agree. Speaking from experience as a teammate and friend of Reaves who spent many nights alongside him in the dressing room, on the team plane and at dinners, Foligno believes Reaves will bring the kind of personality that could change the complexion of the Leafs group for the better.
“It’s never a dull moment with him,” Foligno said. “It’s never quiet. He brings a lot of personality to our league.”
In his first appearance as a Leaf, he went on TSN in sunglasses with a beaming smile to share his excitement over joining his new team.
Ryan Reaves tells TSN: “(The Leafs) are built with a lot of skill up front but not a lot of grit,” adding “I’ll just beat someone up and all the pressure is off.” pic.twitter.com/e7l29NCwNC
— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) July 1, 2023
If Treliving has indeed identified the need to liven up the Leafs dressing room as a pressing one, perhaps to prevent the constant playoff disappointment hanging over this core like a dark cloud, Reaves could end up sparking change inside the dressing room.
Foligno said that one of Reaves’ best attributes in the dressing room is how the constant chatter he creates can then bring character out of teammates very few people knew existed.
Rude? Never.
In fact, Foligno called Reaves “very inclusive.”
“I appreciate guys that try to get everyone together, and not just the same guys over and over again. He always invites everyone over. He’s a big team-bonding guy and you appreciate guys like that to rally the troops and bring everyone out and get to know each other,” Foligno said.
Banter just brings a sense of conviviality that Foligno remembers changing the Wild dressing room for the better. That’s why the Wild were, according to Guerin and Treliving, intent on bringing Reaves back to Minnesota. And that’s why the Leafs wanted him and were willing to give him a three-year contract to secure his services.
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“He’s going to be in your face,” Foligno said. “The way he is on the ice is the way he is off the ice.”
On the ice, Reaves’ physicality is still his strong suit. He hits players like a “football player” in his own estimation. Reaves racked up seven major penalties last season, still among the upper echelon in the league at 36. At his best, the Leafs will hope he will use that physicality to create turnovers on the forecheck.
“(Reaves) obviously doesn’t play a ton of minutes and doesn’t play in crazy, crucial situations. But when he does play he is effective, and then when you can roll four lines, it helps that out,” Foligno said.
In that TSN appearance, Reaves said his new team was built with skill up front but “not a lot of grit.”
Foligno said Reaves doesn’t just bring that aforementioned grit, but “balance and confidence to a lot of guys around him.”
If that ends up being the case, it’s hard to not picture a benefactor being, say, Matthew Knies, who will likely be playing his first full NHL season in 2023-24. Knies himself told The Athletic he was victim to some persistent Lightning voices in his ear during his first playoff series last season
“I’m glad (Luke Schenn) stepped in and took it for me,” Knies said before Game 4.
Disregarding positional and on-ice comparables, Reaves could serve as Schenn’s replacement in this regard.
“Skilled guys just play a lot more comfortable when you have (a player like Reaves), who you can label as a tough guy,” Foligno said.
Foligno wants to be clear, though: Reaves is more than just a pugilist. Inside the dressing room, Foligno believes Reaves will have plenty to share about what to expect in the postseason. Reaves has racked up an impressive 108 playoff games over his career, 45th among active NHL players. That’s more than double than the next closest Leafs expected to play next season: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly each have 50 playoff games to their credit as Leafs. John Tavares has played 55 playoff games, 31 of which were with the Leafs.
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“He’s played in pressure situations, so he understands what it takes to win and what’s needed at certain times. That’s what he’ll be able to bring to a team with, obviously, a lot of skilled guys. Just having that character in that room will help those guys,” Foligno said.
And so Reaves could end up being the next old-school character to try and jolt this Leafs core out of their playoff slumber, like Joe Thornton before him. The likes of Matthews and Marner in particular bonded with Thornton. If you’re Treliving, you hope Foligno is right and you hope that regardless of what he can provide on the ice, the intangibles he’ll bring off the ice will benefit the Leafs’ best players.
It remains to be seen whether Reaves will be able to do that, but once training camp does start, that core should expect the volume around the team to get cranked up to 11, with maybe a new stereo system to boot.
“It is not about fighting and all of the rest of it,” Treliving said to justify the signing of Reaves. “I just felt both on the ice, in our room, and around our team, we need a little bit more noise. Ryan brings that.”
(Photo: Sam Hodde / NHLI via Getty Images)
