Ryan Reaves Taken Off Injured Reserve as Maple Leafs Forwards' Health Saga Comes to an End
The Maple Leafs placed Tyler Bertuzzi on the non-roster for family leave to make room on the 23-man roster.
Ryan Reaves is no longer on the injured reserve.
The Toronto Maple Leafs took the forward off the IR late Tuesday, ending a reported disagreement in clarity over the player's health.
To make room for Reaves on the 23-man roster, the Maple Leafs placed Tyler Bertuzzi on the non-roster for family leave. His wife, Ashley, is expecting to give berth to the couple's second child.
On Sunday, Sportsnet's Luke Fox spoke with Reaves about the player's health. The physical forward said he had been 'ready for a couple of weeks now' despite being on the team's injured reserve list with a knee injury he sustained on Dec. 14 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Reaves returned as a full participant at practice on Jan. 2 where he went into detail about his knee injury. He explained in a chat with The Hockey News that his knee has popped out "about 10 times" before in his NHL career, but that — at the time — this was the longest amount of time he has missed as a result of the injury.
Reaves does require knee braces to play and there could be a legitimate claim by the Maple Leafs not releasing him from injured reserve. But there was also the fact that the club didn't have room for the player on the 23-man roster unless they placed someone on waivers or sent someone down to the minors. Or in this case, what they were able to do with Bertuzzi unavailable.
And it hasn't gone well for Reaves this season.
Signed to a three-year, $4.05 million contract by new GM Brad Treliving this past summer, Reaves has underwhelmed on the fourth line this season with just one goal in 21 games and his -11 rating is the team's worst despite playing in half as many games as most of his teammates,
Placing Bertuzzi on the non-roster ended any ambiguity about the forward's health status. But the bigger-picture question is will Reaves ever get into the lineup again? There doesn't seem to be room for the 37-year-old to get in. He was the lone extra forward at practice on Tuesday.
What do the Leafs do when Bertuzzi comes back?
The forward isn't expected to miss much time at all (perhaps one game). After that, he'll be restored to the team's 23-man roster and another move will need to be made.
The Leafs can send one of their three waiver-exempt forwards down to the Marlies in Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson or Pontus Holmberg down to the Marlies. There is also the possibility that if Samsonov struggles again, he could be taken off the roster since he's waivers exempt in the short term after having cleared it earlier in the month.
Like most decisions with the Leafs, they'll likely hold off on making any call in that regard until they have to. They only have two games (both against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday and Saturday) before taking off for a week as part of the NHL-mandated bye week,
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