The Penguins announced they’ve recalled right winger Avery Hayes from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. They have an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is required.
Pittsburgh has one of the league’s more intriguing prospect pools. Perhaps no one has seen his stock rise more in the last few months than Hayes. The 23-year-old has exploded in the minors this season, leading the Baby Pens with 19 goals in 36 games. That includes a pair of hat tricks in his last five outings over the course of the Olympic break. In his last 10 games, including an NHL spot against the Sabres back on Feb. 5, the 5’10” forward has 11 goals and 13 points with a +6 rating.
Amid a slew of relatively high draft picks over the past few seasons, Hayes arrived in the organization in 2023 as an undrafted free agent signing by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, not Pittsburgh. He remained on an AHL contract until the Pens tore up that agreement at the 2025 trade deadline and gave him his entry-level deal, which still has another year left after this one.
Hayes made his NHL debut in the Pens’ final game before the break. His recall was mostly motivated by a slew of absences, but it was also a long time coming, considering his minor-league output. Adding him back to the roster ahead of Pittsburgh’s return to play this week indicates that they plan to keep his promotion active for the stretch run. After all, he did come up with a pair of goals and managed six shots in just over 10 minutes of ice time. While an extremely small sample, that works out to a league-high 35.47 shots per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 – a league-best number by more than double the second-place figure.
The Pens’ forward group is nearly at full health. Filip Hallander is close to returning from the blood-clot issues that have kept him out since November, as he’s on a conditioning assignment to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It’s not clear when captain Sidney Crosby will rejoin the team following the knee injury that ended his Olympics with Team Canada in the quarterfinals, but given he was listed as day-to-day as late as the morning of the gold medal game, it’s very likely not a season-ending ailment.
That means – at least, for now – that Hayes has leapfrogged younger, more high-profile names like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty on Pittsburgh’s short-term depth chart. With a great chance at ending their three-year playoff drought on the line, it’ll be curious to see what kind of deployment Hayes gets in the coming weeks.