
Kevin Hayes saw a report over the weekend that the Flyers were on the verge of trading him to the Blues. His Philadelphia teammate, defenseman Travis Sanheim, was reportedly part of the deal, too.
“I was texting with Sandy a little bit,” Hayes told The Athletic on Tuesday. “We heard some rumors. We heard it was done, and then it wasn’t done, then it was done, and it wasn’t done.”
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The reason the trade hadn’t been finalized, according to league sources, was that the Blues were planning to send defenseman Torey Krug to the Flyers in return, along with a first-round pick in this year’s draft. But Krug, who signed a seven-year, $45.5 million free-agent contract in 2020, has a no-trade clause, and they would need him to waive it. That’s the final detail in such a trade — after the clubs agree on the assets.
Hayes, 31, is an avid golfer who spends his summers in his hometown of Boston, so he spent Saturday and Sunday at the course, wondering whether he’d be a Blue.
“Honestly, it was out of my hands,” Hayes said. “I couldn’t do anything about it.”
But what was in Hayes’ hands was his cellphone, so he texted a longtime friend about the situation. That friend was none other than Krug, with whom Hayes played hockey with the Boston Icemen beginning at age 10. Krug, a Michigan native, would fly in and play with the team in the summer. Then when Krug was with the Boston Bruins, Kevin’s older brother, Jimmy, was his teammate.
“I’ve known Torey for a very long time,” Hayes said. “So I talked to Torey through this whole thing. You hear rumors, and I texted him, I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'”
Hayes declined to disclose what was said in his conversation with Krug — “that stuff is between us,” he said — but he soon found out what we all eventually learned, which is that Krug was invoking his no-trade clause to block the trade to Philadelphia.
“He’s earned that right,” Hayes said. “He’s an unbelievable player, and I’m not questioning any single thing he did. Whatever he wanted to do was great with me.”
Four days after it appeared that Hayes and Sanheim might be headed to St. Louis and Krug to Philadelphia, the Blues settled for a smaller version of the trade Tuesday, acquiring Hayes for a sixth-round draft pick in 2024. The Flyers are retaining 50 percent of the center’s salary-cap hit for the remaining three years of his contract, so the Blues will be dealing with an annual average value (AAV) of $3.6 million.
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Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, who is in Nashville for the NHL Draft on Wednesday and Thursday, will address the media Wednesday afternoon regarding the trade.
Headline: Flyers, Blues trade involving Kevin Hayes in limbo, per sources: What is the hold-up? https://t.co/lVXqLxod8n #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) June 25, 2023
This offseason, Armstrong has acknowledged that the Blues are in a retool, but he’s also made it clear he wants his club to be competitive in 2023-24, and Hayes helps that cause.
The 6-foot-5, 216-pounder had 18 goals and 54 points in 2022-23 and was an All-Star for the first time in his career. But he butted heads with Flyers coach John Tortorella, who switched him to the wing and made him a healthy scratch at one point.
“I made the All-Star Game and still didn’t feel like I was helping the team at some points,” Hayes said. “They kind of went into a rebuild and didn’t see me as part of it, when I saw myself as part of it. I never lost confidence in my game, but the coaches may have. It’s just more of they maybe didn’t think I could help their team as much as I thought I could.”
“I’ve known that I’ve been getting traded pretty much this whole entire summer. No one told me that, but I can read the writing on the wall.”
Hayes said when speculation began a few days ago regarding St. Louis, he was excited because he’s cousins with former Blues player and current Blues college scout Keith Tkachuk on his mother Shelagh Hayes’ side.
“I feel like every guy says they were a fan of the team that they get traded to, but it’s true,” Hayes said. “I got to grow up watching Keith when he was with the Coyotes and Blues. Every time they came to town, I would leave school and go to their practice.”
But as Hayes waited for the trade to come to fruition Sunday and then into Monday, he and his agent, Bob Murray, who was also Tkachuk’s agent during his career, weren’t getting their hopes up.
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“We didn’t really know,” Murray said. “Most of what we got was from the media. … Everybody thought the deal was about to happen on Saturday and it didn’t. Then there’s the fear that maybe the whole deal falls apart.
“But it seemed like St. Louis wanted Kevin and Philly was willing to do what was necessary to get it done. I talked to (Flyers GM) Danny Briere a couple of times, and he was very honest and upfront, which was nice. We were just waiting and hoping it would get done. I was feeling confident, but you never know.”
My analysis of the Kevin Hayes trade, why it had to happen, and why the Flyers got so little in return for him:https://t.co/utCd1DEP9t
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) June 27, 2023
As late as Monday night, Hayes had heard no rumblings of the deal that would come down Tuesday.
He was playing golf again Tuesday and told the players in his foursome that he needed to be close to his phone.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to keep the ringer on loud,'” Hayes said. “But my family group (text) chat was going, ‘Bing, bing, bing.’ It wasn’t even about hockey. It was about my 9-year-old niece’s soccer game. I was like, ‘I’m turning this off.’ So I put it on silent, and literally five minutes later, I look down and I had three missed calls from Danny B. and two from my agent.
“It is weird when you read about a trade that doesn’t happen, and then a couple of days later it’s a different type of trade. It all got released a couple of days ago, but yeah, it’s super exciting that I ended up in St. Louis.”
After hearing from Briere, Hayes got a phone call from Armstrong.
“He just said, ‘Listen, we didn’t have the year we wanted,'” Hayes said. “He believes in the guys he has in that room. It wasn’t that long ago that they were very successful, and he thinks I’ll be a huge help to them. I’m very excited. I think I can help the team, and I can’t wait to get there.”
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Hayes also joked that Blues fans owe him one.
In 2019, he was with Winnipeg, facing the Blues in the first round of the postseason. The best-of-seven series was tied at two games apiece, and the Jets were winning Game 5 2-0 at home. In the second period, he had a chance to put his team ahead 3-0, but as Hayes tried to stuff the puck past goalie Jordan Binnington, he inadvertently prevented the goal from going in, and the Blues rallied for a 3-2 victory.
“I actually shot a puck out of the net that was going in for Winnipeg,” Hayes said. “I think (St. Louis) should be thanking me for that.”
Hayes is familiar with several players on the Blues’ roster and heard from a few of them Tuesday. He played with Pavel Buchnevich with the Rangers and knows Nick Leddy, too.
“They’ve got some good young players and some older players that are fantastic, as well. A great goalie,” he said. “I think I should fit in pretty easily with the group. I have high confidence in my ability to play in this league. I’ve been in the league for a while. I think I’m a player that drives offense and makes the players around him better, and that’s what I plan on doing when I get to St. Louis.”
The one player he wonders whether he’ll get to be teammates with when he joins the Blues is Krug. The defenseman did exercise his no-trade clause in the deal with the Flyers, but that doesn’t guarantee he won’t be moved at some point this summer.
“I don’t know what happens from here with him,” Hayes said. “I hope he’s with us in St. Louis. I’d be very happy. I would love to play with him. He’s a great guy.”
(Photo of Kevin Hayes: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
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