It’s good to have Ryan Reaves as an enforcer on your team … and it’s good to have him as your fantasy football general manager

The Sharks are one of eight NHL teams in an exclusive fantasy football league, along with the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

That’s right, eight NHL teams are competing against each other, not on the ice, but on the online gridiron. Reaves says that San Jose is just the Sharks in this league, no clever team name.

And they’re 7-0.

Reaves co-manages the team, along with veterans Alex Nedeljkovic, Barclay Goodrow and Tyler Toffoli. Super sophomore Macklin Celebrini, who revealed the existence of this league with Will Smith on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast recently, sat in on the draft.

“We’re bringing him along and teaching him the ropes,” Reaves joked to San Jose Hockey Now, about a Draft Day situation that resembles the Sharks’ captaincy.

Nedeljkovic says that Reaves, like he does for the Sharks, handles the nitty-gritty details of team management: “He’s the one behind the scenes, plugging in players, and whatnot.”

So what’s behind the Sharks’ undefeated record?

“We discussed it during the draft, that we were going to go after some workhorses,” Reaves said.

With their first pick, the Sharks selected Philadelphia Eagles’ star running back Saquon Barkley. They also have one of the NFL’s best wide receivers, Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Of course, in an eight-team league, everybody’s got good players.

It’s the later picks where the Sharks have hit, selecting less-heralded running backs Jonathan Taylor and Javonte Williams. They also got, ahem, a very aggressive GM in Reaves.

“Everybody’s scared of Reavo. All the young guys don’t know how to say no,” Adam Gaudette, sitting in the next stall, said.

This is in the Sharks’ own locker room league, where Reaves was proud to share that he traded his way out of a 1-2 start, and now has arguably three of the NFL’s top-five fantasy players on his team.

“I’ve made some absolutely outstanding trades this year,” Reaves crowed.

Celebrini, on the podcast, accused Reaves of low-balling other Sharks in their own league. 

Reaves countered: “I don’t lowball. If I was low-balling and they didn’t like the trade, they could have just declined.”

Reaves offered two reasons for his fantasy success: Vision and persistence.

“I know how to take advantage of people who need something at the time, and I’m more willing to look at the future, three, four weeks ahead,” Reaves said.

And Reaves, like he is on the ice, is all about getting under your skin.

“I actually saw a video on that earlier, this guy said, to be a good fantasy GM, you just have to keep bugging people. Like there’s no point in not pestering and bugging them,” he said. “Once they say they’re done talking, then fine, it’s over. But if they say they want to talk, you just got to keep on them until you get a deal done.”

Reaves sounds like he wouldn’t be out of place heading up a Silicon Valley start-up!

But back to the eight-team NHL league: If the Sharks are at the top of the league…who’s at the bottom? Reaves and Nedeljkovic weren’t sure, but they believe the Rangers are 2-5 or 1-6.

So that’s two wins for the Sharks over the Rangers this week!

The Flyers, meanwhile, are challenging the Sharks’ supremacy.

“Philly’s got a good team,” Reaves said. “They’re right on our heels.”

Reaves didn’t like the Oilers’ draft.

“Early [Travis] Etienne pick, which I didn’t think was gonna pan out. He was good early. Picked [Josh] Allen early, which fair enough, I just thought eight-[team] league, there’s enough quarterbacks out there, but their team’s been decent,” he remarked.

So what’s the fantasy Stanley Cup that these eight NHL teams are playing for?

“It’s definitely more pride than anything,” Reaves said.

“We play for fun!” Vincent Desharnais shouted.

“There’s been no talk of punishment,” Reaves added.

“There’s a little money in it,” Nedeljkovic admitted. “But we play for smiles.”

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