Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Ryan Reaves Suspended 5 Games

Toronto Maple Leafs winger Ryan Reaves has been suspended five games for an illigel check to the head of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.

The hit occured in the second period of the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night. While the hit was certainly dirty, the lengthy suspension is mostly because Ryan Reaves is a repeat offender and has been suspeneded multiple times in his NHL career.

The suspension won't really affect the Leafs negatively however, because Reaves is their worst player and even though Coach Craig Berube dresses him most nights, he shouldn't.

it is rare that the NHL Player Safety Department actually helps a team, but in this case they will force the Leafs to dress a better lineup than usual, at least for the next five games.

Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Ryan Reaves Suspended 5 Games

Ryan Reaves has been suspended three other times, according to Sportsnet. He has just one assist in 16 games, while the Leafs play to a 40% Expected Goals rating when he is on the ice.

The Leafs get heavily out-shot, out-possessed and out-chanced when Reaves plays and ironically will get better when he's out. Though he supposedly brings an intimidation factor to the games that protects the Leafs stars, the thinking that leads to that conclusion is anything but critical. The fact is that the enforcer role is outdated and the Leafs are much better off dressing a player who can score the occaisional goal.

The Leafs lost Reaves' minutes last year by a score of 22-10 and in the playoffs he caused at least two early goals against in games the Leafs ultimately lost.

Reaves will at least miss games against Utah, Florida, Tampa, Chicago and Nashville. The Toronto Maple Leafs should consider cutting him at this point - he's 37, he can't keep up and his penalties only hurt the team.

He even inexplicably makes more than the league minimum, so there would be at least some salary cap savings by demoting him and playing Alex Steeves every night in his place. In addition to Reaves bad play, the Leafs just have too many fourth liners dressing every night - Lorentz, Dewar, Holmberg, Kampf and Reaves is about two too many.

In conclusion, this might be the only time in NHL history that a suspension helps a team, but that's where we're at. The Leafs play next Wednesday against Utah.