Philadelphia Flyers
Finally: Flyers Trade Kevin Hayes To Blues For Sixth-Round Pick
The Philadelphia Flyers finally traded Kevin Hayes.
The team announced the deal Tuesday that sent Hayes to St. Louis for a 2024 sixth-round draft pick. The Flyers will retain half of Hayes’ $7.1 million annual salary for the remaining three years of his Flyers’ deal.
Hayes, 31, was part of a reported package deal that was to include Travis Sanheim for one of the Blues’ first-round picks and defenseman Torey Krug. The deal snagged when Krug reportedly refused to waive his no-trade clause.
The Flyers tried to get another team involved in the deal, a team for which Krug would play, but that did not work. Trading Hayes seemed inevitable as the team’s goal was to get younger and acquire draft picks. The trade comes days after general manager Daniel Briere said Hayes still had value to the team and would be difficult to replace.
Hayes, 31, played 253 games with the Philadelphia Flyers over four seasons. He scored 63 goals and 94 assists for 157 points. This past season Hayes set career-highs for games played (81), assists (36), power-play points (16) and shots (209).
The Flyers acquired Hayes in June 2019 from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft. Hayes signed a seven-year, $50 million deal with the Flyers in 2019.
The Hayes trade is Briere’s second big move in the team’s rebuild. Defenseman Ivan Provorov was traded to Columbus earlier in June.
The NHL Draft begins Wednesday in Nashville. The Flyers hold 10 draft picks including the 7 and 22 overall picks.
Not impressed at all. That seems to be the reaction of a couple Flyers fans I’ve chatted with. They didn’t have to move him. Of course, the player-coach dynamic was fractured, but you get the two of them together as their boss (Danny) and tell them to clean this up. Then you move him at the deadline and you could probably actually get something for him. 3 years is a long time to retain $3.5M. The team is most likely going to bottom out anyway. Assuming they retain on DeAngelo (and maybe even Sanheim), you’ve then used up your retention spots. I’d like to say Chuck could have done this, but he might have added assets to move the contract. :-O
A couple of ways to think about this: It was public that he had to be moved so that compromised his value. We gave up a fifth rounder for him and traded him three years later for a sixth rounder. The team is rebuilding; did we want to keep him with a $7 million cap hit while he continues his lazy, laid-back style of play, taking ice time away from young centers like Cates and Frost? $3.5 million is freed up for younger assets. Tension with the coach and potential pouting is removed.
However, in spite of all that, he is a 6’5 center who can put up 50 points. Briere couldn’t squeeze a 4th rounder for that while retaining 3.5 million? No other team was interested to play the Blues offer off of? I’m hoping something else happens between the Flyers and Blues that this may be a part of. If so, this may not be so bad. If not, I would say not a good trade but circumstances may have dictated it.