Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
I'm not sure I would go after Hayes. Having watched a lot of Boston College over the last three years I was never really impressed with him. He showed flashes of having top six potential, but most of the time he looked more like a 3rd or 4th liner. He actually reminds me a lot of Bryce Van Brabant. I think he's one of those guys that showed a ton of potential at 17 but has never been able to pull his game together until put in the right position with the right linemates. At BC this year he was the guy whose job it was to dig the puck out and get his ass to the front of the net and bang home the garbage. He wasn't relied on for getting the puck into the zone and wasn't responsible to be the defensive guy. He filled that role very well, but I'm not sure I get into a bidding war for this kid because of his success this year. He was not the guy who made things happen at either end of the ice on his line. Of the three components on the line and the Eagles, we got the best two players on both sides of the puck.
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While I'm not a big fan of Hayes, I have to wonder how much Eagles hockey you really watched this season from this statement. I watched only about a half-dozen games myself, but when I did watch, and from the many highlight packages of Gaudreau I watched over the season, I do think you underrate him quite a bit. If anything, Gaudreau was just as much of a net-front presence for that line as Hayes, and I distinctly remember more than just a handful of occasions where Gaudreau was the happy recipient of very nice feeds from Hayes that resulted in goals or great scoring chances. Yes, Gaudreau unquestionably was the catalyst on that line, but Hayes is much better than just the garbage man you portray him as.
He's a good player with size and soft hands. Certainly much better than your memory of him, and I think it would be a good idea for the Flames to pitch an offer in the summer.