Two insiders drop a bombshell regarding Leafs winger Ryan Reaves

With their win last night, the Leafs have moved back into 3rd in the Atlantic Division with 54 points, though the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning are nipping at their heels with 53 points apiece and are sitting in the 1st and 2nd Wild Card spots.

Aside from their contentious situation in the standings, the Leafs may also be coming up to a contentious point with one of their veteran wingers, as Sportsnet's Luke Fox dropped an interview with Ryan Reaves last night, where Reaves suggested that he's been healthy and ready to play for a couple of weeks now. As soon as fans had discovered this, the conversation had quickly shifted to how Reaves' comments made it sound like he's frustrated with his current situation in Toronto, being relegated to watching games from the press box instead of playing in his usual spot on the 4th line.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek discussed this on their most recent edition of 32 Thoughts this morning, doing their best to make sense of Reavo's comments. Friedman led off by not only suggesting that the Leafs' medical staff may disagree with Reaves' health status. Given Reavo's admission about his knees being very loose, requiring the use of knee braces on both knees, it would certainly make sense that a medical professional may not clear him to return. He also suggested that we may have some sort of a resolution before Wednesday.

Friedman was purposefully vague in what that resolution might be. It's possible that he simply returns to the lineup, but it's equally possible that he either remains on IR, is moved to LTIR or that he ends up being waived or traded. We'll simply have to wait and see.

Marek, on the other hand, believes that Reaves' comments were intentional and were made to shake the tree in Toronto. Reaves knows how much media attention the team gets and how far comments can go in an interview. Marek believes that Reaves made the comments that he did to try to reach a much quicker resolution.

Friedman didn't disagree, and acknowledged that with as smart as Reaves is, he could very well be doing just that, trying to send a message.

With the team having the day off today, we may not hear much about this until at least tomorrow. It will be interesting to see whether Reaves draws back in against the Jets on Wednesday or if there's another type of resolution to the issue before then.