Let’s be honest. It was a pretty underwhelming offseason for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and while we still have a whole month until the start of the new season really ramps up, hockey folks are usually notoriously not busy in August.

The best free agent signing by Kyle Dubas was probably Blake Lizotte, and their biggest name-recognition get was likely Matt Grzelcyk, although you may recognize that name as the one that’s impossible to spell unless you copy and paste it.

Their trades were equally unimpressive from a recent performance perspective, but they do make for some interesting storylines heading into the fall for the Penguins.

That includes Kevin Hayes, who was the first acquisition of Dubas’ summer. At the draft out in Vegas, the Penguins agreed to take on Hayes and his contract, getting a second round pick for their services.

Hayes, whose best days came from his time in Philadelphia, had fallen out of favor when his production no longer lived up to the seven year deal he signed with the Flyers, carrying a cap hit of around, $7.124 million.

At his peak, Hayes was over a half a point per game player. For him, I use points per game instead of the baseline stats because Hayes had the unfortunate timing of most of his years being cut short, either by Covid or injury.

His only full length season with Philly was his last, where in 81 games he scored 18 goals and added 36 assists.

But in what was then still a flat cap world, Philly decided they needed to move on.