Sheng Peng: Who's Afraid of Ryan Reaves? Three Scouts Weigh In Asking three scouts some hard questions about Ryan Reaves

Nice work Sheng. I enjoyed this. Obviously the Reaves tenure in Pittsburgh had mixed reviews (to put it politely). Most fans didn't like it. The trade was beyond awful.

That being said, I kind of miss him. I think he has value against certain teams. His numbers in Pittsburgh were nothing short of putrid, but he never had a chance here. His linemates weren't full time NHL players. Hell, with Kuhnhackl and Rowney on his line you could make the case the Reaves had the best offensive skills. I'll say this, Reaves knocked people off the puck as violently as Mike Milburry roughing up a child. It didn't matter 'cause his linemates treated the puck like a live grenade.

The comments about helping players feel "more comfortable" on the ice are interesting. We have a couple of good beat reporters in Pittsburgh that absolutely insist his team mates repeatedly said how they felt more "comfortable" having him on the bench.

Interesting interview. We loved Reaves in St. Louis and he performed extremely well on the 4th line, contributing offense and hits. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Blues sign him again on a cheap contract in the off-season.

Thanks, I was entertained by this write up.

Ryan Reaves never takes a shift off. Call me crazy, but if the Flyers trade Simmonds this summer, I’d look at Reaves to pick up some more toughness/grit for our 4th line. Flyers have been a soft team at times. Going to have plenty of youth too.

Grit = worthless. Sorry.

Anonymous or not, you'll be hard pressed to get an honest answer out of any (ex)player, coach, manager, etc. They've all been conditioned to give the politically correct, boring answers. Guys like reaves and glass have no place in the NHL anymore. Goals win games, not intimidation. To get rid of cheap shots the league needs to dish out proper penalties, fines, and/or suspensions.

Great read, thanks for this.