Quoting: jp_harvey
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.