Auston Matthews sounds off on the early impact of Ryan Reaves.

One of the first moves made by newly appointed Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving in free agency this summer was the signing of veteran National Hockey League enforcer Ryan Reaves. Reaves was signed to a 3 year deal at a cap hit of $1.35 million per season, and there were many who were critical of the move from the new Leafs GM.

Although it is still far too early to tell how this deal will play out for the Maple Leafs in the long term, through the first two games of the season Reaves has shown why he commanded such a price. The big man has been a dominant presence on the ice for the Maple Leafs and he was again on Saturday night when taking on his former team, including one particularly dominant shift that ended with him dropping the gloves with former teammate Marcus Foligno.

The question remains however, how has that impacted the other players on the Maple Leafs roster? Following Saturday's game, Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews shared some insight on that very topic when he shared his thoughts on Reaves through the first two games of the regular season.

"He’s been an unreal addition ... big hits, just kind of getting the momentum back on our side, and obviously he’s not afraid to chuck them," admitted Matthews on Saturday night. "It’s awesome to see and I imagine there’s going to be a lot more of that throughout the rest of the season"

As mentioned there's no telling how this deal will play out over the next 3 seasons for both Treliving and the Maple Leafs, but so far Reaves is making this deal look like a shrewd move on the part of Treliving.