Brendan Lemieux simply needs time to mature & other thoughts

Lemieux’s suspension, Panarin’s Hart Trophy chances and Wayne Gretzky, there’s a lot of New York Rangers topics to talk about

Brendan Lemieux has the heart, fearlessness, and talent to become a key player for the New York Rangers for many years to come.

He just needs to mature first.

The blindsided headshot Brendan Lemieux gave Colorado Avalanche forward Joonas Donskoi in the last game of the regular season is indefensible. The Rangers were down a goal with about three minutes remaining in regulation and the play was over.

Lemieux clearly leaned into Donskoi so this wasn’t an accident or incidental contact. It was a penalty that put his teammates in a bigger hole. The NHL Department of Player Safety was right (a rarity) to suspend him for the first two games of New York’s best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifier   against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Lemieux’s shot was selfish, unnecessary, and very poorly timed. However, it’s also a product of being a second-year NHLer still trying to prove himself and needing to mature. There is a place in the game for what Lemieux brings to the Rangers because there’s always going to be cheap shot artists who will take liberties with star players and run goalies.

However, shots like Lemieux’s on Donskoi must have a purpose and be done at an appropriate time (and not necessarily target one’s head). Whatever compelled Lemieux to strike Donskoi, that was not the time to retaliate. Clearly, Lemieux should’ve filed whatever was bothering him away for “next time” for the immediate welfare of his team, which I’d bet was seared into his brain by the team’s brass in the immediate aftermath.

I believe that if Lemieux is properly mentored, he’ll learn to pick his spots. My hope is John Davidson, Jeff Gorton, and David Quinn give him that opportunity. The last thing the Rangers should do is give up on a 24-year-old kid who plays with the physicality, heart, and guts as Lemieux has since arriving in New York.

It wouldn’t cost the Rangers much to keep Lemieux, mentor him, and see if he can’t mature into a smarter agitator/checking forward. He’s a restricted free agent after the playoffs and doesn’t stand to receive an overwhelming raise from his $925,000 cap hit in 2019-20. He’s certainly worth the time and relatively small monetary investment.

Lemieux made his NHL debut at age 21. The same was true for former Rangers’ agitator Sean Avery, who was very popular among the faithful at Madison Square Garden. I mention Avery because Lemieux’s playing style reminds me of Avery’s in terms of being willing to mix things up and add scoring.

Lemieux has played 131 NHL matches thus far (78 for New York, 53 for the Winnipeg Jets). He has 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points and 240 penalty minutes. Avery posted 12 markers and 22 apples for 34 points and 406 PIMs in his first 131 league matches.

The similarities end there (at least so it seems).

Avery, as many of you know, could be a pain in the rear to opponents, his own teammates, his coaches, and in whatever league he was playing.

Dave Siciliano, his coach in Owen Sound in Canadian juniors, once told Sports Illustrated that he was forced to devote “80 percent of his time to Avery, while the other 20 percent went to the rest of the team. You seemed to be dealing with something every day.”

Avery’s NHL career started with the Detroit Red Wings, who traded him to the Los Angeles Kings after only two seasons. Wings general manager Ken Holland would later tell NHL.com, “The only thing I would say is obviously we had him as a young player at that time and our concern was his lack of respect for the game, the people in the game and, obviously, he left us.”

The Kings suspended Avery after the winger reportedly refused to complete a drill and got into a verbal altercation with assistant coach (and former Ranger) Mark Hardy. Avery twice led the NHL in penalty minutes and posted 99 points (35 goals) and 667 PIMs for Los Angeles before getting traded to the Rangers in February 2007.

Avery performed well on Broadway (literally).

He had 123 points in 264 regular-season matches and 15 points in 28 playoff games. He also earned 601 PIMs — and a lifetime ban from all of Marty Brodeur’s social gatherings after his unorthodox screening of the New Jersey Devils’ goalie during a playoff match, prompting the NHL to create the “Avery Rule.”  Brodeur was so rattled by Avery, he refused to shake the winger’s hand after the series. Avery said it didn’t bother him and called the goalie “fatso” in a TV interview for good measure.

That offseason, Avery signed a four-year, $15.5 million free-agent deal with the Dallas Stars. Later that season, he was suspended by the NHL for six games and ordered to take anger-management classes after publicly calling his ex-girlfriend a derogatory term.  The Stars took things further, suspending him indefinitely and ultimately waiving him.

He was claimed by the Rangers off waivers in March 2009 and went on to play 178 more games for the Blueshirts, notching 22 goals, 45 assists, and 389 PIMs before calling it a career after 2011-12 at age 31.

Lemieux’s heart seems to be in the right place. He doesn’t cause problems as Avery did (at least not publicly) and his teammates seem to like him (he and Tony DeAngelo are close). If anything, he tries too hard, which has cost him and his team at times. But in deciding whether he stays with the Rangers, the team’s brass ought to consider that it’s better to have a player who cares than one who couldn’t care less.

Lemieux wasn’t the only Rangers news on Tuesday.