SAN JOSE – Ryan Reaves came to the Sharks last offseason and immediately, as one might expect, given his career, made a big impression.
With his larger-than-life personality and trademark swagger, the well-respected Reaves — once a villain in San Jose – helped inject the Sharks roster with a certain amount of toughness and a badly needed dose of confidence.
“We’re making the playoffs,” Reaves told Bay Area News Group in December when the Sharks hit a small rough patch. “There’s nothing in life guaranteed, but we’re making the playoffs. I said that the day I got here.”
Reaves’ season is now in jeopardy after he sustained a hand injury during a first-period fight with Garrett Wilson in the Sharks’ loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Coach Ryan Warsofsky said Monday that Reaves, a pending unrestricted free agent, is now considered week-to-week. With only three-plus weeks left in the Sharks’ season if they don’t make the playoffs — as the 39-year-old tough guy winger long believed – Reaves’ playing days in San Jose might be over.
That’s perhaps why Sharks players became so emotional over the weekend, and even Monday, when asked about Reaves, who undoubtedly helped bring them closer together, unifying a locker room that featured about a dozen new faces from the year before.
After his injury, Reaves came back to the Sharks bench to try to offer encouragement to the team, even though he wasn’t going to be able to return.
“I saw him in the locker room (after the injury) happened, and he was pretty emotional,” Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli said. “He’s an emotional guy, and he’s done a really good job with our group this year. So, it sucks to see him leave that game, but obviously, his doing something like that doesn’t surprise me as an ultimate team guy, for sure.”
Over his career, Reaves has been loved by teammates and occasionally hated by opposing fan bases, including the one in San Jose late last decade when the Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights had a pair of nasty playoff series.
Toffoli had competed against Reaves for a long time, including the postseason. Toffoli specifically brought up the 2020 playoffs in the bubble in Edmonton, when his Vancouver Canucks lost to Reaves and the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round in seven games.
Reaves didn’t score in the series and only averaged about 10 minutes of ice time, but Toffoli said he, “single-handedly himself took games over, just about him being vocal and him being physical on the ice. Being able to become his teammate was pretty special, and I think every guy in here would say that they think nothing but great things about him.”
Reaves’ fight Saturday was his fifth in 50 games this season — not a huge total considering he had double digits in fights in five other seasons earlier in his career. But his acquisition from the Toronto Maple Leafs in July for defenseman Henry Thrun proved to be an important one in San Jose, for a variety of reasons.
“When I started talking to him through the summer after that trade, and talking to the coaches that have had him, you knew he had a good personality,” said Warsofsky, adding that he and general manager Mike Grier talked about bringing a big voice to the locker room.
“I think that’s important to keep it loose at times, but also have an understanding of how to play the game this time of year and play in the league, and (Reaves) has seen a lot. So, he’s helped the younger players, he’s helped set an identity for that fourth line. I think he’s helped Barclay Goodrow find his game again, in a sense. He’s helped Zack Ostapchuk, (Adam) Gaudette.
“He’s helped us in more ways than one, and probably more than I expected.”
The question, in case Reaves can’t return this year but is healthy enough to continue his career, is whether Grier might be willing to bring him back for another season.
As of now, the Sharks have 11 forwards under contract for next season, with Collin Graf, Zack Ostapchuk, and Philipp Kurashev all set to become restricted free agents. Cam Lund, Kasper Halttunen, and Quentin Musty of the Barracuda might all compete for NHL jobs in the fall, although they are vastly different wingers than Reaves.
Reaves has said that he’d like to reach 1,000 NHL games, something only 10 players in his draft class have accomplished, and win a Stanley Cup. Can that happen with the Sharks, who healthy scratched him in nine of 13 games before Saturday?
“I’d love to hold on for another two years, hit that mark and ride into the sunset,” Reaves told the “Cam and Strick” podcast last summer. “I don’t think I’ve got more than two years left, but the dream is always the Stanley Cup.
“When I first came into the league, I remember telling my wife, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I hit 100 games?’ Then it was 200, then 500, and now I’m thinking maybe I’ll chase 1,000. For a player who plays like me, that’d be a pretty cool accomplishment. So, Stanley Cup and 1,000 games, in that order.”
For his career, Reaves has 140 points in 1,147 penalty minutes in 962 games. Considering his impact in San Jose this season, perhaps it’s not out of the question that he reaches the 1,000-game milestone in a Sharks uniform, as odd as that might have once sounded.
“I love what he’s done for our team this year and what he’s brought to our group,” Warsofsky said. “I think he can still play, and the leadership, the personality he’s brought to our group is so impressive. So we’ll see. We’ll get there.”