Dec 4, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Kevin Hayes (12) awaits a face off against the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
The Penguins have fired the first salvo in earnest of their offseason, and I have to admit it’s a shocker.
According to a report first filed by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Pens acquired veteran forward Kevin Hayes from St. Louis along with a second-round pick in 2025 Entry Draft for “future considerations.”
To sum up our latest acquisition in Michel Therrien-speak, a big “soff” forward.
Just what we needed.
Such is the way of things in the ‘Burgh. While the Cup-winning Panthers provided a physical blueprint to follow, we continue on with our Milquetoast ways.
Maybe they should rename us the Lady Byngs. Or better yet, the Pansies. We could switch to a nice, floral-print uniform. But I digress.
Once upon a time a reasonably productive offensive player, Hayes saw his numbers dwindle to a disappointing 13 goals and 29 points with the Blues last season. Mind you, this is a player who’s pulling down roughly $7.1 million a season for two more years. (Before you take a leap off the Fort Pitt Bridge, the Flyers are on hook for half of that. But still.)
We basically went out and chewed up the $3.5 million freed up by Jeff Carter’s retirement. Can’t for one second imagine what Kyle Dubas was thinking (or drinking), unless he simply wanted to procure the draft pick and plans to flip Hayes or buy him out (which would add to Philly’s pain).
Ah, but there’s a connection to newly minted assistant coach David Quinn. Hayes played for Quinn as a member of the Rangers. And he’s a Massachusetts native who played his college hockey at Boston College. Those Beantown boys tend to stick together.
Back to Hayes as a player, and I’ll try my best to be objective. He’s been a 20-plus goal scorer twice, most recently with the Flyers in 2019-20. A 50-point scorer twice as well, the most recent 54 points with Philly in ’22-23. Before he was basically run out of town by hard-line coach John Tortorella.
He’s 32, stands 6’5” and weighs 216 pounds but is not physical. Nor is he fast. Based on his metrics from Natural Stat Trick, he’s not a play driver, which doesn’t remotely seem to make any sense for the up-tempo game Mike Sullivan likes to play.
Here’s his JFresh WAR chart. Hardly dazzling.
Hayes is versatile and he can play right wing or center, so he does provide some flexibility. He did win a Carter-esque 57 percent of his faceoffs last season, although that appears to be an outlier…he’s generally been underwater on draws.
In short, we acquired a big, grossly overpaid player who doesn’t appear to a fit in any way. Shades of Mikael Granlund.
I’ll be honest…my confidence in Dubas isn’t at an all-time high. Here’s hoping he has another trick up his sleeve.
A good one.
Pens Picks
The Pens have made their second-round selections in the Entry Draft. And at first blush, they sound like picks well spent.
With the 44th overall selection, the one gleaned from Carolina in the Jake Guentzel trade, they selected 18-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke from the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL. Here’s the skinny on the right-shot, 6’3” 183-pounder according to Blazers GM/coach Shaun Clouston.
“He’s a player that can play at both ends. He’s a great skater. He can pass the puck out of trouble, he can skate the puck out of trouble. He’s very good at getting the puck moving north and breaking pucks out. He has some ability to make a move at the blue line and jump down and create some offense. He walks the blue line well, but I think in his two years in the league he’s probably made the biggest improvements with his defensive game.”
With the 46th overall pick, we snagged undersized but feisty 18-year-old left wing Tanner Howe from Regina of the WHL.
Howe skated two seasons alongside Connor Bedard, so he knows how to play with studs. But he also did fine on his own this past season, notching 28 goals and 77 points in 68 games to go with 77 penalty minutes.
He’s described as physical, driven and dedicated. One who plays with a chip on his shoulder.
Man, could we use a heaping helping of that.
That’s all for now, folks.
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Hey Rick,
Any of what little excitement I started to feel has been extremely tempered by the trade and the first of our 2 2nd round draft picks. Brunicke only managed 21 Points and was a -12 in 49 GP last season. Yes Kamloops stunk last season and perhaps Brunicke was part of why they were bad not despite our newest RHD.
I do like what little I know of Howe. With this kid and Lucius Cruz (part of the Guentzel trade) I am hopeful that somewhere down the line the Pens may have a couple of Cruise Missiles to ply on their forecheck, sometime after this team gets out from under the Millstone known as Sullivan.
Chase Pielita also appears to be an intriguing pick. He is over-aged (20) and far more defensive than I would anticipate Sullivan would embrace.
As for the Penguins trade, part of me thinks it was more about picking up a draft pick in exchange for helping St. Louis to clear Cap space. Nothing else makes sense to me. The only real problem I see with Hayes would be in him blocking development of younger players. The Penguins literally gave up nothing other than taking on a Cap hit (hence the term future considerations)