Ryan Reaves Football-Hockey Decision

“He never really pushed me either way,” said Reaves, who played his 20th NHL game on Thursday against the Edmonton Oilers. “He coached me a few years in football but never gave me his opinion on what I should do.

“I didn’t know what I wanted. I loved both sports,” he continued. “It just worked out this way.

“I had had a real freak injury. I was shaking hands at the end of a tournament and my knee just locked on me. That was the end of hockey season, the beginning of football season and it was the year I got drafted into junior, so that was the end of that.”