Leafs GM Brad Treliving explains decision to bring Ryan Reaves to Toronto; the decision has nothing to do with fighting
Yesterday, the Leafs officially signed Ryan Reaves to a 3-year deal that will see him earn $1.3M per season. Reaves, while he's not a spring chicken anymore, does address a need for the Leafs, being a lack of toughness and physicality in Toronto. However, that's not the only reason why GM Brad Treliving brought Reaves to Toronto.
Treliving spoke to the media on Saturday evening about signing Reaves, a move which came with plenty of backlash, and revealed his rationale behind the decision.
"You need character on your team and sometimes you need some characters (plural). 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." - Treliving on bringing Reaves to Toronto
It's surprising that Treliving admitted one of the first things he learned about the Leafs is that the team as is was quiet and didn't bring, for lack of a better word, personality out of each other. Hopefully Reaves is the first of a few additions by Treliving to make the room a little louder, providing them with a few different voices.
Treliving also explained why he gave Reaves a 3-year deal saying, "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."
Reaves has already made a great impression on Leaf fans with his TSN interview yesterday and should be able to handle the Toronto media with no issues. Beyond that, we should have quite a few quality soundbites coming from "Reavo" this season.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 2 | 1092 ANSWERS Leafs GM Brad Treliving explains decision to bring Ryan Reaves to Toronto; the decision has nothing to do with fighting Will Ryan Reaves play out the full 3 years of his deal in Toronto? | ||
| Yes | 403 | 36.9 % |
| No | 689 | 63.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
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