Hopefully Blais has gotten the injury bug out of his system and returns to 2019 Cup Run form he had with St. Louis. Couple big time goals, physical presence every shift, could be a good player alongside Chytil once he shakes the rust off and if he stays uninjured.
If he doesn't, not that Hunt changes the makeup of this roster, but hes worth half the price and was one of our most effective 4th lines and Hunt @ 750k > Blais @ 1.5 if Blais doesn't figure out his game.
The irrational hate for Hunt should really be aimed at GG for using him in a top 6 role he clearly wasn't suited for. And I like GG, think hes done a fine job, but this wasn't one of his bright spots.
Hunt was an effective, reliable, good 4th liner. Its a shame we "had" to lose him, these type of low-cost but effective players are the ones you sometimes miss come crunch time. Hope thats not the case with Hunt.
Personally, Vesey earned his way in Training Camp, and is a solid PKer who I think has looked good on Chytils LW. To me, this wasn't a Hunt vs Vesey. It was a Kravtsov/Blais vs Hunt. Unique situations with both Blais and Hunt and a desire for NYR to have both those players work out for them or for trade reasons (understandably) cause Hunt to lose his job because Vesey outplayed him and earned it.
I will say, a Blais-Chytil-Kravtsov had a lot of potential and if it works that way, allowed a 4th line consisting of Vesey-Goodrow-Reaves-Carpenter on any given night, we won't miss Hunt much, thats a great bottom 6