805 games, and now a one-year deal in Kazan
Kevin Hayes has signed a one-year contract with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL. The American centre is 12 NHL seasons deep and, by last winter, he was not really part of anyone’s plans.
The career line reads like a good pro rather than a star: 185 goals and 261 assists in 805 regular-season games, with 8 goals and 18 assists across 56 playoff appearances. Getting past 800 games is rare. Hayes did it while moving through five organisations.
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Seven years, $50 million, and a contract Philadelphia never lived down
Chicago drafted him. He never played a game for them. No deal got done, he hit free agency, and the Rangers picked him up, which is where most of his early work happened. Winnipeg then traded for him at the 2019 deadline.
That summer the Flyers went big: seven years, $50 million. The number followed the franchise around for the rest of the decade. Hayes was fine at first, 41 points in 69 games, and he was genuinely good in the 2020 bubble run, 13 points in 16 playoff games before Philadelphia went out in the second round.
Then his body started falling apart. A sports hernia. Multiple surgeries. A blood infection. He still put up 31 points in 48 games and ended up a Bill Masterton Trophy finalist. His last year in Pennsylvania was his best offensively, 54 points, and he moved onto the top line once Sean Couturier went down.
St. Louis, Pittsburgh, the press box
The Blues took him in 2023 and kept him for exactly one year: 76 games, 13 goals, 16 assists. Pittsburgh traded for him next, giving up future considerations. Year one there was reasonable, 23 points in 64 games. Year two was not: 28 games, 8 points, and a growing number of nights watching from upstairs.
Kazan is offering minutes and a job. Pittsburgh had run out of both.
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