Craig Berube has slowly been cutting the ice time of veteran Leafs forward Ryan Reaves, which has led many to speculate that his time in Toronto is ending.

Leafs head coach Craig Berube revealed ahead of Tuesday’s game that he dressed enforcer Ryan Reaves on Tuesday to ensure that the rest of the Leafs were protected. It’s clear on Wednesday that that was not the case.

Reaves assumed his normal spot on the fourth line on Tuesday, with Nicholas Robertson scratched for the Leafs’ rematch against the Philadelphia Flyers.

At first, it appeared to be an obvious messagefollowing the injury to defenseman Jake McCabe during Sunday’s game after a questionable exchange with Philly’s Garnet Hathaway left McCabe in rough shape and in need of medical attention.

When news broke of Reaves being inserted into the lineup, many expected we would see him fight for the first time this season. That, however, was not the case and just as everyone expected, the Leafs and Flyers traded punches early in the first period. The only problem was that it wasn’t Reaves and Hathaway, but Connor Dewar and Joel Farabee who let their hands do the talking.

Reaves, a former fifth-round pick, is still without a fight this year and was a minus-1 in 6:52 of ice-time, forcing the Leafs to break up a very successful fourth line that consisted of Steven Lorentz, David Kampf and the aforementioned Dewar.

In two games prior to the Christmas break, Reaves had ice-times of 10:00 and 11:54, but his last three games have seen his time on ice cut drastically.

According to Hockey Reference, Reaves’ ice-time went from 11:54 to 8:14 to 5:11 and back up slightly to 6:52 Tuesday, indicating that Berube is realizing Reaves is hurting the team more than helping them when he is on the ice — especially considering the team has longed for a responsible and trustworthy fourth line.

It’s a very small sample size, but Berube may have found that fourth line with Lorentz, Kampf and Dewar.

The trio has the lowest expected goals against per 60 minutes according to moneypuck.com as well as generating almost triple the amount of high-danger scoring chances for than against, despite only starting 10.53% of shifts in the offensive zone.

While Reaves can be useful at very specific times and against very specific opponents, Berube has made it clear with his usage that he is becoming more of a locker room guy than anything. Skating in just 27 games for the Leafs so far this season, Reaves has another year left on his contract that comes with a $1.35M cap hit.

That money could go a long way to signing other, more impactful players to an extension, and with the trade deadline approaching while the Leafs operate in LTIR, the extra $1M+ that could be recouped if Reaves was waived could be the difference between the Leafs landing a player like Vincent Trocheck or Brock Nelson.