Vegas Golden Knights: Pros and cons to trading away Reaves

1. Pros to trading Reaves

First and foremost, Ryan Reaves is an expensive commodity for the Vegas Golden Knights, and that point is emphasized when you consider this franchise’s salary cap constraints.

Reaves currently carries a cap hit of $2,775,000 and will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer.

That is a lot of money for a fourth-line grinder, despite the fact that the 33-year-old has been more productive from an offensive standpoint in his two-and-a-bit seasons with the Knights than he had been throughout his career.

Reaves is also arguably the toughest player in the NHL and he’s one of the most entertaining fighters to watch.

However, again, $2,775,000 is a lot of money to be paying for an enforcer and in a hard cap sport, every dollar is crucial.

As such, Reaves becomes expendable given that the Golden Knights have some serious needs to address at the Trade Deadline.

They desperately need a puck-moving defenseman and they could do with some secondary scoring too, but neither will come cheap.

Because he will be a UFA in the summer, moving Reaves at the Deadline makes sense and maybe a bubble team that needs some jam and grit in their lineup would be interested in acquiring one of the best enforcers in the business.