2024-25 Season in Review: Kevin Hayes

The veteran forward is signed for one more season with the Pens.

Vitals

Player: Kevin Hayes
Born: May 8, 1992 (Age 32 season)
Height: 6’ 5”
Weight: 216 pounds
Hometown: Dorchester, Massachusetts
Shoots: Left
Draft: 2010 first round, No. 24 pick by the Chicago Blackhawks
Acquired: Traded from the St. Louis Blues on June 29, 2024
2024-25 Statistics: 13 goals, 10 assists, 23 points in 64 games
Contract Status: Signed through 2025-26 at a $7.14 million cap hit (50 percent retained by PHI)

Monthly Splits

via Yahoo!

Story of the Season

The Penguins acquired Hayes ahead of his 11th NHL season as part of a trade with the St. Louis Blues that also brought in a 2025 second-rounder.

The Pens eventually traded that pick back to the Blues as part of a separate deal to acquire a 2025 third-rounder and 2026 second-rounder.

Those deals allowed Kyle Dubas to bring in more draft capital for his retooling team while adding a forward who— thanks to the Philadelphia Flyers retaining half of his salary— came with a cap hit of under $3.6 million.

The former New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers winger may no longer be a 20-goal scorer, but he still ended up being one of the Penguins’ more productive forwards last season.

Despite missing time in November with an upper-body injury, being a healthy scratch for nine-straight games in December and being sidelined again at the end of the season with a lower-body issue, Hayes tied for sixth on the team with 13 goals in 64 games.

He added 10 assists for 23 points, skating a career-low 12:03 per night, but earned an increasingly significant role on the top power play unit in place of Evgeni Malkin later in the season.

Hayes, who is old friends with Noel Acciari, seemed like a fit in the Penguins’ locker room. Mike Sullivan said in November that he believed Hayes’ personality was “an important element of trying to move this group in the right direction.”

To that end, Hayes became a glue guy in the locker room. He mentored younger players like Cody Glass throughout the season, served as the team’s locker-room DJ and was the team’s nominee for the King Clancy award (for leadership qualities, contributions to community) due to his various charitable actions and attitudes. Hayes went through the tough time professionally getting scratched in December, but he didn’t sulk and stayed ready for the next opportunity. He got it and jumped right back in with no drop in effort or focus.

Regular season 5v5 advanced stats

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 17 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.

Corsi For%: 52.91 (2nd)
Goals For%: 42.31 (12th)
xGF%: 52.12 (5th)
Scoring Chance%: 52.24 (2nd)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 57.45 (1st)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 7.61 (11th)
On-ice save%: 89.55 (12th)
Goals/60: 0.78 (7th)
Assists/60: 0.59 (14th)
Points/60: 1.37 (11th)

One of Hayes’ main roles on the Penguins last season was taking face-offs. Despite his time missed due to injury he finished the season having won the fourth-most draws on the team, going 237-for-217 for a 52.2 win percentage on the dot.

Charts n’at

Via Advanced Hockey Stats and NHL Edge

A little bit of Hayes went a long way as a successful WAR player in a small role this season. As seen above, the Pens did well to control scoring chances and even total shot attempts when he was on the ice and that was reflected in his metrics here. In some ways the handling of Hayes was similar to another Massachusetts veteran, Brian Boyle, who was given the perfect amount of responsibility and no more. At this point Hayes can’t take much of a bigger role but quietly the team performed pretty well when he went out for his shifts.

Hayes has been reduced to one of the slowest and most lumbering players in the league at this point of his career. He doesn’t get around the ice all that well but is smart enough and still has some hands to make plays when he does get to the right positions.

Highlights

Questions to ponder

Would any teams be interested in a potential trade for Hayes next season? Given that Hayes is on an expiring contract, Dubas might be inclined to take a swing at any potential trade that could bring in more draft capital should one pop up next season. He just turned 33, but he’s on a relatively affordable contract and could theoretically draw some interest in a league where teams are always hungry and desperate to add size and depth to the center position.

Ideal 2025-26

Hayes matched his goal total from his 2023-24 campaign with the Blues while skating in 15 fewer games with the Pens. If he can stay healthy next season, the Penguins will hope to see him contribute offensively, while offering a veteran presence around the rookies fighting for a roster spot in training camp.

Bottom line

The trade that brought Hayes to Pittsburgh may have been mostly about acquiring draft capital, but when healthy Hayes helped the Penguins keep possession on the power play and win face-offs.