After a meek ending to the season, Rangers GM Chris Drury vowed to add toughness to the line up during this off season. He perhaps capped that off this evening with the somewhat expected acquisition of Ryan Reaves from the Golden Knights, in exchange for a third round pick in next year’s draft.
The 34 year old right winger has also played for coach Gerard Gallant previously, and was a known quantity to the recently installed head coach, and gives the team another dimension should they elect to dress him.
As to how many games that might be remains to be seen. Aside from the incident with Tom Wilson, there was very little that has happened last season that would warrant a traditional enforcer, and it remains to be seen how many games he ends up dressing for.
Last year he played about two thirds of the season, appearing in 37 of the 56 regular season games with just three fights. In the two years prior he saw more action, dressing for all but two game, and had his two best years offensively, with 9 goals and 11 assists in 2018-19 and another 8 goals and 7 assists in 71 games in 2019-20.
His addition means the Rangers are well stocked on the fourth line, with Sammy Blais, Kevin Rooney, Dryden Hunt and Morgan Barron all potentially competing with Reaves for ice time.
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