Anytime a team is willing to give up on a young player, it should immediately set off some alarm in the back of an executive’s mind. No organization is going to willingly part with a talented prospect in a trade that it perceives as valuable. However, the New York Rangers chose to receive an under-used and still developing player in Brendan Lemieux as compensation for Kevin Hayes.
At face value, Lemieux’s numbers don’t exactly light the world on fire. The forward has played in just 53 NHL games to this point and is about to turn 23-years-old. This is typically around the point in which a player that will stick around at the NHL level develops into who they will be for their entire career.