Ryan Reaves says changes are coming to the Leafs' locker room
After signing a 3-year deal that will see him earn an average of $1.35M per season, Ryan Reaves dove right into the Toronto media scene beginning with an interview on TSN. He then continued the interviews om day two and was asked about his personality off the ice and what he brings to a locker room.
Reaves was very candid and blunt in terms of what he hopes to bring to the atmosphere of the Leafs' room and is hoping to change the reported quietness and help liven up the group.
The best team's I've been on are the guys that everybody is together all the time off the ice. The worst teams I've been on is when you have little cliques that hang out together and you never really get the full group together.
I'm not exactly sure what the locker room is. I hear it's quiet. I don't know if it's cliquey or whatever. If it is, we can address it. I've heard it's a great locker room so I think I'm just going to make sure that everybody's together all the time and dragging guys into whatever we need to do to feel like a complete team." - Reaves on what he'll do for the Leafs' locker room
Reaves will certainly inject a fresh personality and a lot of energy into the room. Something that is apparently needed as Treliving noted the room is "quiet" and seems to be lacking in the personality department. Additionally, and not intentionally as he is speaking from his personal experiences, but you could read into Reaves' comments about successful teams and say that he could be calling out the Leafs for being "clique-y". That isn't too far-fetched as we have seen over the years Marner, Matthews and Michael Bunting always arriving at the rink together and everyone else showing up separately.
