The Winnipeg Jets have traded Kevin Hayes to the Philadelphia Flyers for a fifth round pick. In other words, they got something for nothing and that something was not one of the Philadelphia Flyers bad defencemen (especially Andrew MacDonald).
The Jets taking advantage of the rule that says that you can trade a potential unrestricted free agent for anything and in this case they had managed to get themselves a new draft pick. While a fifth round pick does not seem like much, but it means the Jets have one more draft pick than they had before and that is a huge win for them.
The Jets will now need to find a centre to play on their second line. Hopefully Bryan Little can be that man, but for the past two seasons the Jets have looked at filling in the gap at the trade deadline instead of going forward as is. It might be something to look at even though the Jets have more pressing needs at other positions.
While the return on investment for Hayes is not as good as it was for Paul Statsny, they did decide that they were not even going to pursue him this off-season and off-loaded him to someone who would trade for him. It was a prudent move and good asset management on the Jets front. Could the return have been better if he had more success in Winnipeg prior to the end of the season? It is hard to say because these trades rarely amount to any real asset being moved.
