Vegas Golden Knights: Lehner the real deal, other takeaways

3. Reaves is a bad man

Ryan Reaves is a dying breed.

There aren’t too many players out there with the build of the human wrecking-ball, who can hit like an absolute train and fight like Mike Tyson.

That is why the Golden Knights preferred to trade Cody Eakin and keep Reaves, who is a pending UFA with a cap hit of $2,775,000.

We did an article a few weeks ago on the pros and cons to trading Reaves, and it is fair to say that the reaction was overwhelming in terms of Vegas fans being dead against the idea of trading the enforcer.

And that is because Reaves is an important cog in the Golden Knights machine, and he will be going forward into the postseason.

Because, not only is Reaves an old-fashioned disrupter, but he can also produce and provide an offensive punch.

We saw both sides of Reaves’ game against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, and it was spectacular.

First, the forward absolutely took out Mirco Mueller with the cleanest but most devastating hit I’ve seen in a while.

It was typical Reaves and that’s exactly what he brings to the table for the Knights.

Then, midway through the third period, Reaves was in the right place at the right time to jam home a rebound after Mackenzie Blackwood had pulled off a couple of stops, recording his eighth goal and 14th point of the year.

This was a real dominant outing from Ryan Reaves who also finished the game with six hits, and there really is no other player like him in the National Hockey League.