I am not sure what your definition of forecheck is but if he was really excellent at that, he wouldn't be playing under 10mins a game. Leadership and toughness are import things for a team to have, but its valuable when the guy can play a regular shift and contribute a shift or two on a special team.
There might be value in having him there but Panarin is still pissed off enough to lose his focus and do stupid shit. Come crunch time I bet the Rangers wish they could use that cap space on a player. Why did they move Lemieux?
Because Lemieux is an absolutely horrible teammate for starters and nobody likes him. Well one former Ranger likes him, but let's not go there.
He's everything Reaves is not, actually. He sucks at fighting, low-effort player, and not great in the room.
Reaves is replacement-level defensively which doesn't sound like much, but most 4th liners aren't and Lemieux certainly is not. I think I could score a goal if you iced Brendan Lemieux for the other team. And a lot of that is due to the fact that Reaves at least tries hard to play his role and take a shift and I don't think Lemieux has ever broken a sweat on NHL ice.
I never understood the argument that we could have used the cap on a better player. Who under $2 million is so much better than Reaves?
And even if said player does exist, is it even worth it for the limited time he's playing? 4th liners don't play much because they're either just blehh or absolutely unusable. That's what 4th liners are. Reaves is the former and Lemieux is the latter.