Veteran winger Ryan Reaves said soon after the San Jose Sharks acquired him in July that his final season with the Toronto Maple Leafs was anything but enjoyable.
Roughly five months later, Reaves’ feelings about the year haven’t changed much.
“I think there were some situations that could have been dealt with differently,” Reaves told Bay Area News Group last week. “Put it that way.”
Reaves, in his first game back in Toronto since the trade, is expected to play on Thursday when the Sharks face the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in the fourth game of a five-game road trip.
Reaves, 38, signed a three-year, $4.05 million contract with the Leafs as a free agent on July 1, 2023. After a mostly solid first season in Toronto, with six points and seven fights in 49 games, things went sideways for Reaves in year two.
Reaves was healthy scratched 15 times in the Leafs’ first 42 games last season. He ended up only playing in 35 of 62 games before he was placed on waivers in March and assigned to the AHL, where he hadn’t played since 2011.
“I think there was just a lack of trust very early in the season,” Reaves said in July after the Sharks acquired him for defenseman Henry Thrun. “It just looked like (if) I had one bad game, I was out of the lineup for four, five, six, seven, eight, nine games.
“I’d come back in, have a good game, but be taken right back out. I just really could never gain any momentum with my game, couldn’t really gain any traction.”
Reaves also drew criticism from some outside the organization for only getting into one fight in his second year in Toronto – a spirit tilt with Mathieu Olivier of the Columbus Blue Jackets in January.
“I started the season two years ago very well, and then things just started going really wrong for me,” Reaves said in July, “and all of a sudden this whole city wanted me out of there.”
At the time Reaves was demoted, the Leafs were looking to free up a roster spot and clear some salary cap space ahead of the trade deadline. With Reaves in the AHL, Toronto’s front office ended up acquiring forwards Scott Laughton and Connor Dewar, as well as defensemen Brandon Carlo and Conor Timmins.
Reaves played three games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies before the season ended in mid-April. Speaking with Leafs general manager Brad Treliving, Reaves felt it was a good idea for the two sides to move on.
“I told (Treliving) at the end of the year, I just thought that this wasn’t, obviously, a good fit,” Reaves said. “I’m assuming he probably thought the same after putting me on waivers and sending me to the minors, and just thought it was kind of time to part ways.”
With the Sharks (14-14-3), Reaves has been a regular in the lineup when he’s been healthy. Part of that is because the Sharks only carried 12 forwards on their roster for multiple weeks, but it’s also a reflection of how valuable he’s been to a team that’s just now starting to come out of a rebuild.
Following the Sharks’ 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, Reaves spoke his mind about the team’s inconsistencies and inability in recent weeks to string together solid performances. San Jose is 6-8-0 since a 2-1 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 11 and entered Wednesday just outside of a playoff spot.
“We got out of our structure again,” said Reaves, who has played 937 career NHL games. “We play a good game, and then all of a sudden, it looks like we just want to wheel and deal the next game.”
ASKAROV UPDATE
Yaroslav Askarov was meeting the Sharks in Toronto on Wednesday, said coach Ryan Warsofsky, who didn’t rule out having the 23-year-old goalie start against the Leafs.
Askarov was too ill to dress for Tuesday’s game and remained in Philadelphia overnight. In 19 games this season, Askarov is 10-8-1 with a .903 save percentage.
LINEUP CHANGES
Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin appears set to rejoin the Sharks’ lineup on Thursday after he was a healthy scratch for the previous four games. Although Warsofsky would not confirm his lineup for Thursday, Mukhamadullin was paired with Mario Ferraro, a Toronto native and a lineup mainstay, in Wednesday’s practice.
The Sharks also had former Leaf blueliner Timothy Liljegren paired with Toronto native Sam Dickinson and Dmitry Orlov with John Klingberg, another ex-Leafs defenseman.
Jeff Skinner was also back on the third line, joining Ty Dellandrea and Philipp Kurashev, after he was scratched from Tuesda’s game. Adam Gaudette was moved to the fourth line alongside Reaves and Barclay Goodrow. Skinner, Goodrow, and Dellandrea are all from the Greater Toronto Area.
It appears defensemen Nick Leddy, Vincent Iorio, and center Zack Ostapchuk will be healthy scratches on Thursday.
THRUN LIKELY TO FACE SHARKS
Thrun was recalled from the AHL on Wednesday, and Leafs coach Craig Berube said the 24-year-old defenseman would likely make his debut with the team against the Sharks. The Leafs waived Thrun in October before the regular season began and has nine points in 19 games with the Marlies.
Thrun had mainly been used as a second- or third-pair defenseman by the Sharks since he was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 28, 2023. He appeared in 119 games with San Jose over three seasons, had 25 points, and averaged 18:44 in ice time. This past season, Thrun, a Harvard alum, appeared in 60 games, had 12 points, and averaged 17:31 of ice time.
Thrun is in the final year of a two-year, $2 million deal.
Another former Shark, winger Carl Grundstrom, scored in the Flyers’ win. Grundstrom was traded to Philadelphia in October.
“You always want to beat your old team, that’s for sure,” Grundstrom said. “So, it feels really good.”
