Wild acquire Ryan Reaves from Rangers

Just hours before the Minnesota Wild are set to suit up for their Wednesday bout against the Winnipeg Jets, general manager Bill Guerin decided to pull the trigger on a trade that certainly made the team much more annoying to deal with.

According to multiple reports (and eventually confirmed by the team), the Wild have acquired winger Ryan Reaves from the New York Rangers.

Going the other way to the Blueshirts is the extremely small asset of a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.

Reaves is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so the Wild have zero future commitment to the player. Essentially, they did the roster-motivating trade deadline move a few months early.

The 35-year-old winger has never been known to be a player that will put up a substantial amount of points, or even have his team be the better one when he is on the ice, but he can do one thing extremely well: Punch dudes in the face.

His clashes with the Wild have been memorable and not for scoring goals, but for being one opponent that can handle Marcus Foligno in a fight and has done a hell of a job at doing that.

He had one of the better (if not the best) fight of the NHL season so far in the opening game of the Wild’s season.

Minnesota is in a tough spot right now. They are losing more games than they are winning and have no real stability in their lineup, whether it be pairings or lines. Bringing a charismatic player like Reaves into this locker room and for this team should be beneficial on and off the ice, if everything goes well.

All in all, they barely gave up anything to acquire Reaves and he is a fun player to cheer for and he is now in St. Paul. Let’s hope for some memorable tussles.