rebuild year 2 (without the panarin or seguin pipe dream)

Since when does a rebuilding team deals it's 1st round pick for the upcoming "tank season" draft?? Not enough thought has been put behind that ACGM...and to think that Hayes has more value than Namestnikov is plain ignorant! Hayes for a first and a fourth lol! This guy is already at his peak, his maximum potential has been reached...and that's too much money AND term for Pionk...a player has to prove something before earning that type of deal.

Back to the drawing board

Agreed, somewhat...

Too much for Pionk and Spooner. Better to give Spooner 2 years in the 3's and make him a more attractive trade chip.
You're bridging some guys, not wise, especially in Buch's case.

Names is certainly worth more than a 3rd rounder, I am really scratching my head trying to figure out where you got that from. Unless the Rangers were getting back a significant prospect or piece to the puzzle (part of a Trouba deal perhaps), they'd be brain dead to move him for a 2nd or 3rd rounder.

The one part I disagree on is Hayes...he is absolutely worth more than Namestnikov. Hayes has established himself as a solid 2C/outstanding 3C. Names has not established anything beyond playing well on a line with elite players. I am not saying he doesn't have the potential to equal Hayes' value at some point, but he simply has not done that yet. I am all for hoping he has an awesome year this season and makes Hayes tradeable, but we have no remote guarantee of this. Their difference in value will be even more obvious when Hayes is resigned for a higher salary than Names was. As for the peaked comment, Hayes is just entering his prime at 26 years old, and Names is only a year younger...so it's easily arguable that if Hayes has already peaked, then Names is way behind schedule.

If you can't get that simply by watching him play (he clearly doesn't have another gear and has reach the full potential he had), just read articles or listen to podcast of real hockey analyst and you'll realize that that's what is being said about him. I never said he was a BAD player, but a fully develop consistent 45 pts/year player isn't and shouldn't be worth that much and is clearly not the building block type of player a team like MTL is looking for.

Sorry, but your watching/listening to something different than I am. I watch every game, read all of the articles posted about the Rangers daily (even in July). I listen to plenty of podcasts both about Rangers and just across the league in general. The articles I read and talk I hear about Hayes is he is gimped by how AV used him. He drew the larger percentage of defensive draws and assignments even when compared to Zibanijad who is the teams supposed top line center. That's not conjecture, that's a statistical fact, it can easily be looked up.

https://www.blueshirtbanter.com/2018/5/9/17323602/kevin-hayes-new-york-rangers-2018-report-card
The virtually same report card can be found for him in 2017 as well, where he was used again by AV for the majority of the defensive draws and match ups!

Now....please link me something from a "real hockey analyst" saying bad stuff about Kevin Hayes in comparison to Namestnikov?

Hayes, better utilized and with better line mates, would easily be in the 50-60 pt range, according to a "real hockey analyst".

On top of this your comparing what Hayes is to what Names "could" be, that's just speculation. The hard facts are that Hayes is a bonafide 2 or 3c who is a whole one year older than Namestnekov. In comparison, Names played the majority of his games this season with two of the best players in the game and scored a whopping 4 more points than Hayes did on a bad team drawing terrible assignments. And Names did that all while playing as a winger, he has yet to come close to proving he is a center. When he came over to the Rangers, he scored that same whopping 4 points in 19 games...again as a wing! Where the heck are you getting this idea that he's done more than Hayes???

Let me say this, I am by no means some huge Kevin Hayes fan, I am in fact excited to see the day the Rangers flip him for something interesting (maybe for Trouba!). But you can't call Names better than him just because you don't like the guy, no matter how many make believe gears either of them have. Facts are facts, opinions aren't.