The Penguins had an extremely busy early afternoon during the second round of the NHL Draft. Not only did Pittsburgh make two selections (defenseman Harrison Brunicke at 44th overall and forward Tanner Howe at 46th overall), the team made a trade which saw them add two assets and give up nothing to do so.
On the surface, it’s a very rebuilding-team type trade. The Penguins get a body to put in their lineup, and add a second round pick to take a pricy contract off the hands of the St. Louis Blues.
The player, who is currently 32, doesn’t necessarily fit the Kyle Dubas mantra of wanting to get younger, but adding a second round pick is a very good indicator of his true underlying strategy, one that looks a lot more like the classic rebuild.
Now before we look a little closer, it’s important to note that Hayes’ cap hit with the Penguins (as it was with the Blues) will be significantly reduced.
Hayes signed a seven year, $7.124 million dollar deal with the Philadelphia Flyers back before the 2019-20 season. He had some decent years with the Flyers, but he never truly lived up to that hefty salary, which prompted Philly to make a move to get out of his deal.
On June 27th, 2023, the Flyers traded Hayes, retaining half of his salary, to St. Louis in exchange for a sixth round pick.
The salary retention that Philly agreed to will still apply now that Hayes has been moved to Pittsburgh, so his cap hit that the Penguins will sit at $3,571,429 exactly.
In his only season with the Blues, Hayes scored 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points in 79 games. He wasn’t great, but a look over his career numbers suggests that St. Louis just might have not been the fit for him.
In his four seasons with Philadelphia, he was always above half a point per game, with his best year actually being his last, when he recorded 0.66 points per game with the Flyers.
I use points per game only because his time with the Flyers was not clean; his first season saw Covid cut it short, then the pandemic season, and then an injury hampered third year actually set up his 2022-23 season in Philly to be his only true full season.
That year, he scored 18 goals and added 36 assists for 54 points. That kind of production wasn’t suitable for a $7+ million dollar cap hit, but is it for a cap hit of roughly $3.7?
Maybe.
It all depends on how the Penguins use him. Hayes is a playmaking center, but at this point in his career the Penguins can’t try to make him something he’s not. On any team that is still trying to contend, Hayes should not be a top six player.
But, around the right pieces, he could work in the Penguins’ bottom six. Hayes’ playing style might actually help unlock the sniper-type player that winger Valtteri Puustinen is.
Puustinen jumped around a little all over the place in the Penguin lineup last season, but if the Penguins pair him with a center like Hayes who can get him the puck, it might be very beneficial for all parties involved.
That probably means Hayes becomes the third line center, which would allow the Penguins to have Lars Eller in his age-35 season play the fourth line center role. Noel Acciari then gets bumped over to the wing.
It’s also entirely possible that Hayes isn’t in Pittsburgh all that long. If he has a good run with the Penguins and the team finds themselves out of the playoff race at the deadline, he could be on the move again. He has two years left on his deal (starting with the 2024-25 season), so term might play a role in what the Penguins could get back for him in a potential trade.
But that’s all speculative. Right now, Hayes is here. It’s the type of trade you kind of have to talk yourself into, but it can be done.
The Penguins now have a second round pick for the 2025 draft, something that they did not have earlier this morning. Their original second rounder was traded to the Montreal Canadiens as part of the Erik Karlsson trade.
And with the interesting position that St. Louis is is, one that sees them being not quite a playoff team but also not in the NHL’s basement, that pick should be interesting to watch.
However, if you are of the mind that the Penguins need to mortgage everything to give this core one last shot, this trade was probably massively underwhelming for you.
(Featured photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images)
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