Ryan Reaves had a few things in mind when he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency. The veteran heavyweight wanted to have a Leafs team that is stuck in the playoffs because of his grit and physicality. He wanted to bring energy and take the pressure off himself as a new hire by just trying to “beat someone up.”
And he Really wanted to get involved in the Leafs fantasy football league.
“Fantasy football is one of my favorite things to do when you play on a team,” Reaves said. “Because when other people play fantasy, they play with people who work in different offices, some people are in different cities. Here, guys constantly come into the room and talk about trades and talk shit. It’s all the time. I love that.
A lot NHL teams run fantasy football leagues throughout the start of the season. The man serving as the Leafs’ league commissioner is someone many Leafs had not met personally when the draft took place on Sept. 5, two weeks before training camp opened.
“I just came in (in the summer) and I asked, ‘Who runs Fantasy Football?’ Do you have a league? I want to come in. And no one really jumped on that,” Reaves said. “So I said to myself, ‘If no one wants it, I’m happy to do it.'”
Is it a stretch to connect Leafs general manager Brad Treliving’s assessment of the Leafs as a quiet team with the fact that, according to Reaves, no one was champing at the bit to hold a draft and make sure the jokes are unleashed? Maybe, but the fact that Reaves stepped in reflects how much he wanted to bring life to a room he’d never set foot in.
We can debate Reaves’ influence on the ice in his first six games with the Leafs. He dropped the gloves for two major fights, didn’t record a single point, his ATOI of 7:51 is lowest among the Leafs while his 36 percent expected goals at 5-on-5 is second-most down. (According to Natural Stat Trick)
But what can’t be debated is how quickly Reaves realized his hope of injecting energy into the Leafs locker room. This manifests itself in how he took over a fantasy football league that is now a “daily topic of conversation” according to Marc Giordano.
The team’s fantasy football commissioner is usually a long-time player on the team. When Athleticism I went inside first fantasy football league team in 2017, veteran defender Jake Gardiner had been at the helm for three seasons by then. After this, Gardiner’s friend and now longest-serving Leaf Morgane Rielly took over.
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“There are a lot of things that I have done and passed on,” Rielly said with characteristic biting wit.
Alex Kerfoot, who was in his fourth season in blue and white, took over the league lead last season.
Considering the pulse of each player in the locker room, all of this tracks.
But given Reaves’ attitude, so does his confident approach.
“I always say that I don’t play big minutes. I don’t score 100 points. So anything that happens off the ice, I like to take care of it. I really do. I love planning parties, getting the boys together, planning dinners, playing football, whatever it is off the ice. I love doing this stuff,” Reaves said.
So far, the Leafs themselves have been impressed not only with how seamlessly Reaves has fit into the fantasy league and, by extension, the team itself, but – and with no disrespect to the previous commissioner Kerfoot – by how well the league itself is doing.
“(Reaves) is active,” Rielly said of his commissioner’s attitude. “He likes to participate in these conversations and he’s on his phone, on the app.”
Reaves previously ran fantasy football leagues for the New York Rangers And Vegas Golden Knights. Others within the league include Jake McCabe, Jake Muzzin, John Tavares, Conor TimminsMitch Marner, TJ Brodie and the loudest general manager in the league according to Reaves: two-time defending champion, Auston Matthews.
Matthews doesn’t always seem to be the most talkative player on the team, but Reaves predicts he’ll dominate the conversations soon enough.
“But he’s slow out of the gates. He finally won his first match,” Reaves said.
Reaves’ dedication to fantasy football means he is constantly evaluating his competition and predicting which players might soon go hot and, therefore, what type of trades he should make. Having a new commissioner who deeply understands the NFL impressed his new teammates.
“I think (Reaves) has the best player knowledge in the league,” Giordano said.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Reaves is leading the league at the time of writing, with McCabe also having a stellar season so far, although there is one player Reaves believes is good enough drafted for him to watch: Marner.
“I’ll have to keep an eye on him.” If he moves, I might have to take action,” Reaves said.
But to Reaves’ surprise, not a single chirp sounded.
“You can’t get inside his head,” Reaves said of Marner. “It’s a fortress.”
The league is a 12-team PPR setup with nine roster players and five bench players with an IR spot. But after taking umbrage with some of the ins and outs of the previously organized league, it seems likely that Reaves could eventually introduce changes: He has long used Sleeper to run his leagues, but the Leafs were set up with ESPN. And more importantly, he wants to sprinkle some spice into the league that doesn’t use free agency money to acquire new players but only a waiver wire.
“I hate it because if you’re at the top of the league, which I am right now, you don’t get any waiver picks,” Reaves said.
As he discusses these changes, the tone of his voice reaches a higher decibel with obvious excitement. Consider this tone an early warning to the Leafs who will be in the fantasy football league next season: Reaves-style changes are likely coming.
Reaves’ ability to navigate a team with his upcoming personality was tested early in the fantasy football season when a controversial trade was proposed at his table.
Tavares traded Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp to Jake Muzzin for Miami Dolphins running back Raheemt Moster and a bench receiver. As Reaves tells it, Muzzin was already off to a good start in the league when Tavares gave him a boost that some Leafs teammates found questionable. Kupp had suffered a hamstring injury during the preseason and Tavares needed players who could contribute.
“Then Mostert had that day where he scored three touchdowns,” Rielly said. “It all came out in the wash but on paper it was a scam.”
Reaves’ diplomatic approach has paid off, but he’s not afraid to weigh in on controversial deals late in the season.
“The only controversial trade I could veto or be vetoed would be right before the trade deadline, when a team that won’t make the playoffs sells. There’s none of that,” Reaves said of a trade to the team’s non-guard league. “So you’re just helping someone.” I will veto it. I’m not going to step in and tell guys how to run a team. But if there is a little falsification…”
What if the complaints become too loud? Reaves has a simple line he’s used for years: “You should have drafted better.” »
This is the Ryan Reaves experience: the new Leaf leaves little room for misinterpretation. His goal was to increase the volume around the team up to 11. But it can be difficult to gauge exactly how a player loaded with off-ice intangibles achieves that.
Unless you log into the team’s Fantasy Football app, which has become a hub of activity, that might not have been the case in the past.
“It helps when he’s a guy who knows what he’s doing,” Rielly said of Reaves. “When you’re young, it can be intimidating. But when you’ve been around for so long, you know what works and what doesn’t. »
(Photo: Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)
