Report: New York Rangers trade Ryan Reaves to Minnesota Wild
The New York Rangers have traded Ryan Reaves to the Minnesota Wild for a fifth-round draft pick.
Hockey Insider Kevin Weekes broke the deal just prior to it being made official.
Per the team’s press release:
New York Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury announced today that the team has acquired a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Ryan Reaves.
The Rangers now have a total of 8 picks in the 2025 draft.
Rangers trade Ryan Reaves
Reaves, 35, played 81 regular season games with the Rangers since being traded from the Vegas Golden Knights in the summer of 2021. He registered 5 goals and 13 points, along with 55 penalty minutes on Broadway.
Gerard Gallant had scratched the veteran right wing in 7 of the Rangers last 8 games.
“I’m a player’s type of coach,” Gallant said regarding Reaves. “I’m not going to let a guy sit there and rot and not say something to them. That doesn’t happen.”
Their relationship is close and dates back to Vegas’ inaugural season in 2017-18. Gallant is a big fan of the way Reaves plays and wanted him in New York when he took the job last season. Unfortunately, as the team became faster the slower-footed enforcer had difficulty keeping up.
“Reavo is a professional,” Gallant noted. “I’m sure he’s not happy and he wants to play every game. It’s tough. It’s never easy but he’s a true pro and we love what he does for us.”
Reaves will now take his talents to Minnesota, who plays a slower but heavier brand of hockey. The Rangers took whatever they could get in order to clear cap space. Reaves has an AAV of $1.75 million.
“After trading Reaves and saving (his) $1.34M Cap Hit for remainder of year, the New York Rangers have $1.5M Projected Cap Space with 22 players on active Roster,” tweeted PuckPedia. “That space can fit (a) $1.98M Annual Cap Hit today or $6.68M Annual Cap Hit at deadline.”
In 767 career NHL games for the St. Louis Blues (2010-11 to 2016-17), Pittsburgh Penguins (2017-18), Vegas (2017-18 to 2020-21) and Rangers, Reaves has 54 goals, 60 assists and 992 penalty minutes.
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