In the past few days, the Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves in an awkward spot regarding Ryan Reaves. Today, General Manager Brad Treliving succumbed to external pressure and made the decision to activate Reaves from injured reserve.
The controversy sparked when Reaves revealed in an interview that he had been ready to hit the ice for a couple of weeks despite still being on injured reserve.
«Yeah, I've been ready for a couple of weeks now,» Reaves stated. "That's a question for them. I am not in those rooms, in those conversations. I'm not going to speculate anything. Just stay ready. And if I get called upon, I do. If I don't, I get my work in.»
This led to speculations about whether the Leafs were keeping Reaves on injured reserve for salary cap reasons. However, today, the Leafs changed course and activated Reaves.
The move is now perceived as General Manager Sheldon Keefe succumbing to the pressure stirred by Reaves' comments. It remains to be seen if Reaves will hit the ice soon or if he will be benched and eventually traded to a new team.
