St. Louis Blues: Why Protecting Ryan Reaves Makes Sense

At this point in the game, we are still going on rumors and hearsay as to who any team is going to protect in the NHL Expansion Draft. There is a strong possibility though, Ryan Reaves might be on the protected list and that would be fine.

The St. Louis Blues are clearly still making decisions regarding who to protect for the upcoming expansion draft. That could mean two things.

First, they might not know who they want as the seventh forward on their list. Right now, they are choosing between Ryan Reaves, David Perron, Jori Lehtera, Kyle Brodziak and Dmitrij Jaskin.

Each has their good points you’d want to keep and each has a reason they are expendable. Surprisingly, protecting Reaves might make the most sense out of any of those names.

Focusing first on the positives of Reaves, you cannot overlook his will and determination. He spent the entire offseason prior to 2016-17 working on his skating and puck handling.

It paid dividends as he put up career numbers in goals (7) and points (13). His hit numbers did not suffer due to more offense and he also became a more effective shot blocker, almost doubling his previous career high in that category.

Reaves also has a pretty team friendly contract at $1.25 million. The counter argument to that would be Brodziak only making $950,000 but Brodziak is more easily replaced.

Brodziak is a center and the Blues don’t want to lose him, nor would I. However, as effective as he has been as a penalty killer, his stats overall can be replaced.

Eight goals does not vault him over Reaves’ stats, even before this past year. His faceoff percentages have never been above 50% except way back in 2008-09, so that is not saving him either.

Some people will scratch their heads as to why you would not protect Perron when the Blues main problem is scoring. They are not completely wrong, but Perron’s inconsistency make finding someone capable of replacing his 18 goals a little easier via free agency, if it came to that.

Additionally, Perron is just an enigma. 18 goals was his highest in three seasons and his most with one team since 2013-14. There is no guarantee he’ll put up those numbers again.

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Jaskin still has a small sample size. However, he just does not seem to have the drive or ability to push past that final hurdle. The talent is there, but like so many others, you only see it in spurts and then there is absolutely nothing in between. It might be time for him to simply move on even if he was not selected by Las Vegas.

Lastly, Lehtera has simply worn out his welcome. He has an albatross of a contract. His statistics have gotten worse every year he’s played in the NHL. Despite consistently playing on the top line with the Blues best scorer, he has failed to even look like a decent set-up man, let alone an elite one.

Leaving him exposed is not that much of a danger either. From everything I’ve read, the Blues would have to swing a deal to get Vegas to take him anyway. So, if St. Louis was intent on keeping him, just letting him dangle is not that much of an issue.

Swinging back to Reaves, he has intangibles the others don’t too. While he doesn’t have the game to back it up, he was (and still will be) one of the team’s most vocal leaders in the locker room.

He is also still an enforcer even if he has honed other skills. The game might be trending away from fights, but they still happen and you still need someone capable of putting some fear into opponents.

For me, personally, it boils down to Reaves and Perron. They are two completely opposite players, but each could be interesting for Vegas.

Reaves brings toughness, a good locker room attitude and the ability to stand up for himself and teammates. Vegas might want an inexpensive player that would not be afraid to put some of their own young players in line.

Conversely, Perron can be an effective scorer when he chooses to be. The stick handling is not as slick as it once was, but he has turned into a more effective team player. From a pure statistical point of view, it would be easy to see Vegas snatch him if left unprotected.

The reason you still might lean toward protecting Reaves is his contract is more desirable. We don’t know yet how close to the cap Vegas wants to be. If they are not trying to simply add salary, Reaves’ $1.25 million looks a lot better on paper than Perron’s $3.75 million.

According to normally reliable sources, the team might be leaning toward Reaves.

Aiding that decision might be the completely quiet nature surrounding Perron. There has been absolutely no talk of the Golden Knights taking him if he was available. Perhaps Doug Armstrong would be willing to roll the dice, no pun intended, given that.

Next: Blues Draft Prospects: Urho Vaakanainen

With less than a week before the draft and lists expected to be released around June 18, we’ll know some answers shortly. For now, it might be smart to start operating under the assumption Reaves will be protected.

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