Vegas Golden Knights Acquire Ryan Reaves

The Vegas Golden Knights acquired one of the best enforcers in the league along with a draft pick.

The NHL’s newest team entered the night preparing for a game against the Vancouver Canucks at T-Mobile Arena. It seemed as if it was just another ordinary night for the expansion franchise. Except things started getting interesting when the Vegas Golden Knights entered trade talks with the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins.

There was a rumored deal about to go down between the Senators and Penguins, but they needed a third party to make the exchange work. And that’s where general manager George McPhee comes into play. McPhee has all the cap space in the world, and he’s using it to his advantage.

The Vegas Golden Knights acquired Ryan Reaves and the Vancouver Canucks 2018 fourth-round pick from the Pittsburgh Penguins. In exchange, the Golden Knights traded Tobias Lindberg to the Penguins, and the team retained 40% of Derrick Brassard’s salary this season. Another great trade for McPhee and the Golden Knights for multiple reasons.

Adding a player like Reaves to the lineup will only enhance the team s toughness come. However, as soon as playoff hockey hits, it’s a different game. Every shot, fight, hit, blocked shot, and puck battle means so much in the postseason.

The 31-year old veteran provides a nasty side to his game. He’s an “in your face” type of player, he will chirp you, hit you, and he’ll do anything to throw the opposition off their game. The Winnipeg, Manitoba native is also a great player to have in the locker room as he’s been to the playoffs multiple times with the St. Louis Blues.

This season, Reaves notched four goals, four assists, eight points and 84 PIM. His job is to keep the room loose and patrol the ice if any shenanigans are going on. Adding the fourth round pick in 2018 is just the cherry on top to this deal.

Another reason I see this as a good deal for the Golden Knights is they did not want Derrick Brassard to go to a contender in the western conference. Furthermore, It was widely rumored that the Winnipeg Jets had a ton of substantial interest in Brassard and that’s why the Golden Knights got involved in the deal with Pittsburgh and Ottawa.

The Golden Knights didn’t want to see the competition improve so this was a brilliant defensive tactic from McPhee to prevent the Jets from acquiring Brassard. That just tells me McPhee is ready for his team to win now.

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All in all, this was a fantastic deal for McPhee and the Golden Knights. Its one of those trades he can’t lose and helps the future of the team. Now let’s see if McPhee pulls off another deal as the trade deadline approaches on Monday afternoon.