St. Louis Blues: Should The Blues Bring Ryan Reaves Back?

The St. Louis Blues need a lot of things to be successful in 2018-19. They need scoring, speed and tenacity. Ryan Reaves only provides one of those, so should the team bring him back?

When asking the question listed in the title, you have to realize the difference between should and could. Could the St. Louis Blues bring Ryan Reaves back? Sure. Should they? Ehh…maybe.

The idea of this came when a friend of mine all but guaranteed that Reaves would be wearing the Note again next season on his social media. This is a person that doesn’t make idle comments that often, so it got me to pondering. Would that be beneficial to the Blues?

On the surface, you are going to have hundreds of people scream yes. Look at any message board or Facebook post regarding the Blues and a large majority of it is talking about how great Reaves is and how the Blues were dumb to let him go.

It’s interesting how the minds of some fans work. I loved Reaves as much as the next guy/gal, but it boggles the mind how a person whose career high is 13 points has suddenly become the second coming.

We all loved his hard-nosed mentality. We loved his tenacity and fire. Reaves’ ability to get under people’s skin was what endeared him to all Blues fans. If someone blew us a kiss, it would bug the heck out of us, but since it was our guy, it was great.

via GIPHY

However, with all those intangibles in place, Reaves never accomplished much with the Blues. He was a healthy scratch as often as not in many seasons.

More from Editorials

• St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
• Hayes’ Debut And Other Bold Predictions for the St. Louis Blues
• St. Louis Blues Captaincy Is Suddenly A Huge Problem For 2023-24
• St. Louis Blues National Games Cause More Problems Than They’re Worth
• St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn Has To Be An Impact Player In 2023-24

Even during the struggles of 2016-17, when the team was devoid of leadership, Reaves did his best to stand up and hold people accountable. That’s all well and good, in principle, but no matter how much you like someone, if you know you are better, you can only listen to them tell you to be better so much.

That was pretty evident on that Blues squad. It would be just as evident if Reaves, and only Reaves, came back on this current team.

Therein lies the problem. Bringing Reaves back, in and of itself, does absolutely nothing other than sell a few jerseys and make some fans happy.

He does not win you any more games. He does not make the difference between being a playoff team and not. Even as an old-school type of fan, the game is changing and Reaves’ spot is limited no matter what team he is on.

The current state of affairs is basically seeing what you want to see. Fans are glowing about Reaves’ two playoff goals with Vegas.

What they fail to talk about is his zero goals with the Golden Knights during the season. He scored four goals with Pittsburgh and then nothing. Both of his goals have been huge to Vegas, but they are an exception, not the rule.

Reaves has three playoff goals in his career and two have come in this one playoff season. That’s not a knock on him. That’s simply a fact. He doesn’t get paid to score goals, so they are more of a welcome surprise when they come.

Even so, he was a scratch for Vegas when the playoffs began. He was more of a sparkplug for the home crowd than an integral part of the team.

All of that said, I’d be fine with the Blues bringing him back at the right price. Anything majorly north of $1 million is too much. $1.5 has to be your max, as he is currently earning $1.125.

Also, as alluded to earlier, Reaves cannot be your major signing. We all want to see what the kids in the pipeline are made of, but if this team is to compete now, they have to make a big offseason move. Whether that is a trade or via free agency is up in the air.

The Blues seem destined to part ways with Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak. So, the Blues would be in need of a more prototypical fourth line player.

Next: Is Mike Yeo On A Short Leash

Reaves was and could again be a great ambassador for the city of St. Louis. If he came back, there shouldn’t be much gripe.

However, let’s not forget that there was not a gigantic outcry when he left. There were upset fans, for sure, but it was not the end of most people’s world. His return should not be met with people laying palm leaves before his feet.

So, I say again: could they bring him back. Definitely. Should they? Only if you’ve made the necessary improvements first.