Devils swap John's with Blackhawks

The New Jersey Devils were busy with the attention that comes with drafting the first overall player and then swinging a trade for one of the league's better defenders, but Ray Shero also made a quiet deal among his big moves and the various chess moves of draft picks sliding up and down the board as well when the  Devils traded center John Quenneville to the Chicago Blackhawks in return for winger (and John) John Hayden.

The trade basically is your classic case of two teams trading players that had been disappointing first-round selections with hopes that a change of scenery and organization would help turn a career around in a low risk trade.
The 24-year-old Hayden was Chicago's third-round draft pick in 2013 from Yale and in parts of three seasons scored eight goals and fourteen assists with the Blackhawks with three of the goals and two assists coming last season in 54 games played.
Hayden isn't known as a strong skater and the Blackhawks apparently were looking for a better fit for what they are installing as a system, which is what I have been reading from the Blackhawks side of things.
Hayden is more of a grinder type that will challenge for a spot on the fourth line preferably, although the third line would be acceptable in a pinch, but not for a longer period of time and he's not afraid to drop the gloves on occasion either as shown here against Minnesota's Marcus Foligno.


As for Quenneville, he never seemed to find a groove in New Jersey after being drafted in the first round of the 2014 draft as the final first rounder of the Lou Lamoriello eta.
Quenneville played well in his three years in the AHL with the Devils affiliates in Albany and Binghamton in scoring 46 goals with a total of 119 points, but was unable to break through as a Devil scoring only two goals in 33 career games, one of those goals coming in last year's 19 game stint with the parent club.
Like Hayden, Quenneville hopes that changing things up a bit could help turn his career around.

I've said I don't have the knowledge of hockey draft prospects that I do of the other sports, so if you would like to check out the Devils newest arrivals via the draft in day two, All About The Jersey in our links area will give you a great deal of information on those selections.