LAS VEGAS -- Kyle Dubas said on Friday before Day 1 of the draft that he wouldn't anticipate the Penguins making any cap-dump kinds of trades. If he makes a deal, he wants players back, and ideally futures -- picks or prospects.
He did that at the start of Day 2 of the draft on Saturday.
The Penguins acquired forward Kevin Hayes and a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for "future considerations" -- which generally means "nothing," but teams aren't able to say "nothing" as a trade piece. Essentially, the Blues offloaded Hayes to the Penguins, and included a draft pick for the trouble.
Hayes is 32 years old. He's getting paid $7,142,857 for two more seasons, but half of that was retained by the Flyers when he was traded to the Blues last summer, so he only counts $3,571,429 toward the Penguins' cap. Hayes has a 12-team no-trade list for the remainder of his contract -- which either means that the Penguins weren't on that list, or he otherwise approved the deal.
With a roster of 13 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders, the Penguins have roughly $5.6 million in cap space after the trade.
Hayes is 6 foot 5 and 216 pounds and a left-handed shot. Next season will be the 11th of his career after playing 713 games with the Rangers, Jets, Flyers and Blues over his 10-year career. He skated in 79 games with the Blues last season, scoring 13 goals and 16 assists.
Two goals by Kevin Hayes.
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 13, 2023
31 seconds apart.
For real. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/oAM999RBgC
If you work at a restaurant, hope Kevin Hayes sits at your table.
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 7, 2023
He's a pretty good tipper. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/4JT0bKOMFD
Hayes is primarily a center, and he lined up mostly as a center for the Blues last season -- 70 games, to be exact. He led the Blues in faceoff percentage, winning 57% of his draws. But he also has experience at wing, too.
Barring further moves, Hayes looks like someone who could slot in wherever needed in the Penguins' bottom three lines. The only real forward slots that were opened this off season by players becoming free agents are Jeff Carter -- who retired -- and Jansen Harkins, who Dubas didn't mention as one of the pending free agents the Penguins are still speaking with. That might mean Hayes replaces either of them on the third or fourth line, at center or wing. At minimum, he would appear to be a significant improvement over Carter or Harkins, at roughly the same cap hit Carter was making. Noel Acciari seemed to benefit from shifting to wing as the season went on, and Hayes playing center could allow Acciari to start on the wing next season. He's a big body who will go to the net-front as well, which is something the Penguins were really lacking last in recent years.
Hayes is also getting older and slower, and maybe that doesn't seem to mesh with the direction the Penguins are trying to go. Hayes' top speed last season was 21.81 miles per hour, below the league-average for forwards of 22.10 miles per hour. He only hit the 20-miles per hour threshold 23 times, whereas the league average for forwards was 73. He never hit more than 22 miles per hour, and he hit between 18-20 miles per hour 277 times, below the league average for forwards of 293. But if he's the replacement for Carter, he's younger and faster by a wide margin.
Hayes' late brother Jimmy spent the last year of his career in 2018-19 on an NHL deal with the Penguins, spending the whole season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Hayes is cousins with Keith, Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, as well as Tom and Casey Fitzgerald.
