What Craig Berube does when Ryan Reaves returns will be fascinating

The Toronto Maple Leafs played their game against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday without the services of fourth line forward Ryan Reaves, who was suspended five games for his dirty hit on defenseman Darnell Nurse in the November 16th game against the Edmonton Oilers.

This is the rare instance of an NHL team being helped by the Player Safety Department, because when Ryan Reaves, who is the NHL’s worst player, was suspended, the Toronto Maple Leafs coach was forced to dress a better lineup.

Craig Berube is a good coach, but he’s an ex-enforcer, so of course he loves Ryan Reaves. Just one problem with that, however: Enforcers offer dubious protection to the team’s stars at best, and at worst, they force a team to dress a short-handed lineup where they are guaranteed to lose any minutes that player plays.

Most NHL players are terrible by the time they are 37, and Ryan Reaves is no exception. The Leafs should never have signed him, and it’s ridiculous that they still play him, but does the coach know this?

What Craig Berube does when Ryan Reaves returns will be fascinating

Last spring, the Leafs dressed Ryan Reaves in playoff games, for reasons that defy belief, and he cost them two goals, both of them early, and both of them in games the Leafs ultimately lost by a single goal. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Though Steeves has only played four games, he looks so much better on the fourth line than Reaves does. The Dewar-Lorentz-Steeves line has been, by far, the Leafs best fourth line this season.

The Leafs are not missing David Kampf or Ryan Reaves at all. Further bad news for both of those guys: the Leafs are a capped-out mess when it comes to the Salary Cap, and Kampf and Reaves are paid a ridiculous amount of money for what they bring to the table, which ain’t much at this point.

The Leafs have been out-scored 3-2 with Ryan Reaves on the ice this year, but without their top-of-the-NHL goaltending, it would be much worse: With Reaves on the ice the Leafs only possess the puck 45% of the time and they have been out-shot 58-49 while being out-chanced 51-34. Overall the Leafs get a 46% Expected Goals rating when Reaves plays.

Steeves hasn’t scored any points and it’s not like he’s playing amazing or anything, but the Leafs have the puck more than their opponent so far when Steeves plays, and they get more shots and more chances than they allow too. One bad game where they allowed several dangerous chances and were deployed as the third line has skewed their Expected Goals rating, but clearly the Leafs are better with Steeves than Reaves.

It’s only been four games and the sample size is meaningless, but the fact is Steeves is faster and he can provide offense than Reaves just cannot. Steeves will help with team speed and bottom-six scoring. This is a simple trade-off against Reaves’ toughness.

The most interesting thing is that when Reaves comes back we will get to see if Craig Berube is capable of putting aside his personal preferences for the good of the team. That in itelf might have a bigger impact than who the team plays on their fourth line.