Demotion for Leafs’ Ryan Reaves who’s “too scared” to fight!

On Wednesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs were hoping to start the 2024-25 season off with a bang against the Montreal Canadiens, but failed 1-0 at the Bell Center. When Cole Caufield fought the back of the net for the Habs and the Maple Leafs deflated, enforcer Ryan Reaves had a chance to provide some momentum for his teammates, but failed to do when he passed up on the perfect opportunity.

Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj challenged Reaves to a fight, but the latter backed away and refused to fight him.

According to former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque, who now host a radio show on BMP Sports in Montreal, Reaves did not dropped the gloves against Xhekaj, because he is too afraid to fight the Habs’ goon. He posted on X:

“He’s scared of him! After what Xhekaj did to the Maple Leafs in the last game, Reaves had to respond! Xhekaj was ready for him and was even expecting a fight yesterday. He even gave him two cross-checks, stepped back waiting for him to drop the gloves, but Reaves wanted nothing to do with fighting him….”

And added that the veteran is too scared to fight again on Thursday morning on his radio show.

That does not do any good to Reaves’ reputation and essentially his role on the Leafs’ roster.

On Thursday, the Maple Leafs were in action again, this time in New Jersey to face their former head coach Sheldon Keefe, the new bench boss of the Devils. It would have given Reaves a second chance to prove his worth and get back on track, however, Toronto head coach Craig Berube did not give him the opportunity.

Reaves was a healthy scratch for the second game of the season. Toronto went on to win 4-2 in Jersey. 

If Laraque is right and the younger enforcers are scary to Reaves, he will end up being the odd man out of multiple occasions this season. At 37 years old, on a hefty contract that is, Reaves has put up 1,072 penalty minutes in 878 career games in the NHL, along with 63 goals and recorded 72 assists, totalling 135 points.

He recently admitted that last year’s was hard on him, though it sounds like history could repeat itself in 2024-25…