I was working out the other day at Wright’s Gym when I was approached by a gym member who asked what I thought of Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. Before I could respond, he proceeded to bemoan our lack of toughness under Sully. Citing a recent (and all-too-commonplace) mugging of Sidney Crosby, he said, “We’re the only team in the league that doesn’t protect our stars.”
Indeed.
Meanwhile, north of the border, ex-Pen Ryan Reaves, now plying his trade for the Maple Leafs, engaged Blue Jackets heavyweight contender Mathieu Olivier in a furious toe-to-toe slugging match.
I got me to thinking about what coulda been.
For the unaware, Reaves was once a Penguin. Weary of watching Crosby and Evgeni Malkin absorb undue abuse, former GM Jim Rutherford acquired Reaves from the Blues in the summer of 2017 for the express purpose of riding shotgun for his superstars.
I was elated. After all, Reaves was (and still may be based on last night’s fistic showing) the baddest dude in the NHL, if not the entire planet.
Given his well-documented aversion to tough guys and big personalities, my guess is Sullivan had a decidedly different reaction.
Reaves proved his worth in the third game of the ’17-18 season. During a rematch of the previous spring’s Cup Final, the Winnipeg-born bomber thumped Predators heavyweights Austin Watson and Ryan McLeod and scored a goal. A nice night’s work, considering he received a scant 6:23 of ice time. An unfortunate harbinger of things to come.
Despite extremely limited playing time, Reaves paced the team with 161 hits, scored a few goals and, most important, kept foes honest. His 5v5 expected goals for percentage (xGF%) a respectable 50.22.
However, by late January the handwriting was on the wall. Sullivan began to scratch the big guy.
Granted a reprieve, Reaves tallied a pair of goals and a helper in his last seven games in the ‘Burgh before being shipped to Vegas on the back end of the disastrous Derick Brassard trade.
Welcomed with open arms out west, Reaves emerged as a fourth-line force for the Golden Knights, collecting 17 goals and delivering 621 hits, many of the Richter-Scale variety, over the next two seasons. His xGF% was excellent, well above 50.
Among his conquests, the burly 225-pound masher twice destroyed Capitals heavyweight Tom Wilson, once with a cross-check to the mush and the other occasion with a booming blind-side hit. In both instances, the DC marauder was left crumpled on the ice.
For the record, the same Tom Wilson who arguably ended our bid for a Three-Peat with a crushing and momentum-swaying check on Zach Aston-Reese.
Rutherford tried twice more to reinforce his lightweight squad. Jamie Oleksiak was given the same healthy scratch treatment as Reaves and shown the door after being jumped and kayoed by Wilson. Although he played well for us, Erik Gudbranson’s stay in the Steel City lasted less than half a season.
Message sent.
Knowing Sully wouldn’t play tough guys, his superiors stopped trying to reinforce the team with a physical presence. In essence, giving foes the green-light to take liberties.
Reaves is 38 now, the same age as Malkin. At this late stage of his career, he’s undeniably a one-trick pony, although as he demonstrated last night, it’s still a brutally effective trick.
Still, who would you have rather had skating on our fourth line all these years? Reaves? Or an endless succession of benign Sully guys like Jansen Harkins and Matt Nieto?
Call me a Neanderthal if you like, but I vote for Reavo.
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Rick,
At the time, when it was reported that Jim Rutherford was trading Oskar Sundqvist and the Penguins 1st round draft pick for Ryan Reaves and the St. Louis Blues 2nd round draft pick (Zachery Lauzon) I screamed nooooooo! I even wrote that right here on Penguin Poop. My protest wasn’t a case of me not wanting Reaves but a case of not wanting to overpay for a type of player that Mike Sullivan had already shown reticence to play; history proved me right.
I know you wished for Reaves to be in the Penguins stocking a month ago and I understand and agree with the sentiment (in theory) but right now I would rather have Nicolas Hague (the player I wanted to take with that 1st round pick) right now and the services of Sundqvist for at least several years of his prime as well as the players that were part of that deal that sent Reaves out of Pittsburgh, Ian Cole (at least for the 3-peat defense), Filip Gustavsson, and the 1st round pick (K’Andre Miller) that Rutherford gave up in that trade.
Right now, with Hague and Miller patrolling the port side of our defense along with maybe Jamie Oleksiak, nobody would have bullied their way across our crease like the Ducks just did to Pierre-Olivier Joseph to get that opening tally yesterday.
Furthermore, if the Penguins had drafted Maveric Lamoureux like I wanted them to do, instead of Owen Pickering they would have a starboard side defenseman with the same type of genetics as the left.
Compared to what the Penguins have right now, yes I would love to have Reaves. However, rather than Reaves I would prefer a defense that was manned by
LHD: Hague, Miller, Oleksiak
RHD: Letang, Marino, Lamoureux
With Gustavsson and Blomqvist as my Goalies.
Hey Other Rick,
I understand your objections to the trade that brought Reaves here, and your perfectly logical reasons for them.
My point is, once we had Reaves, we should've hung to him..at least for a while. Of course, that would've required somehow circumventing Sully, which for reasons unknown our GMs have by and large been reluctant to do.
Actually, the player I always coveted was Nick Foligno, currently with the Blackhawks. Tough as nails, quick to stand up for his team and defend a teammate, capable fighter and a decent player. Upstanding citizen and leader, too.
Give me a couple of forwards like Foligno and a Brenden Dillon-type on defense and I'm good to go.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I do agree with you in that once we got him it was so stupid as to border on criminal to then trade him away in arguably the worst trade in team history. From start to finish though, the Reaves episode in Penguins history did more to dismantle this team than any other faux pas of any of the other GMs.
Worse than not having a Ryan Reaves type player (or Nick Foligno) is the fact that we employed and still employ a roster loaded down with their exact opposite players. Rather than finding a Ryan Reaves and a Patric Hornqvist JR/Sullivan chose to populate the lineup with Conor Sheary, Dominik Simon, and their analogs.
Bottom line is that all of this team's problems are self-inflicted and they keep doubling down on failed policies. And no one in the organization or fan based can truly hide behind the smoke and mirrors of Hindsight is 20-20 because many fans did voice their opposition to the moves that destroyed the team; hubris just block the vision to see the elephant standing before them.
Rick
I really wish you hadn't brought this up—now I'm back in that depressive funk! Lol. I watched the fight last night, and I’d call it a draw. But honestly, Reaves just went toe-to-toe with one of the toughest guys in the NHL, gave up 11 years in age, and still managed to make it a draw. Pretty impressive for a player 38yrs old. Man I still wish he was a Penguin.
Sorry, Mike...lol.
Yeah, Olivier IMHO is the current heavyweight champ. He's a really good technical fighter and throws (and lands) bombs. For Reaves to hang with him and even carry the middle/back-half of the fight? Incredible, especially considering it was his first fight of the season.
As an aside, Olivier's not only tough as nails, with 10 goals and 18 points in 48 games he's developed into a decent player.
The depressing part for me? We'll NEVER have that kind of player as long as Sullivan's coach... :(
Rick
Rick
What I don’t get about Sullivan is that he’ll use a guy like Nieto, but refuses to give
someone like Reaves a chance. Reaves isn’t a goon, and he’s not a bad player, at
least not during the time he would’ve been with the Pens.
I still believe if we had a couple of Reaves type players on this team - one forward,
and one Defenseman we wouldn't be trying to back into the playoffs.
Rick
There you go depressing me again!! My gut tells me Sullivan is here to stay.