Kevin Hayes
Pittsburgh Penguins Right Wing
Thirteen goals in 64 games at 12 minutes a night, on the last club willing to pay part of his contract.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | NYR | 79 | 17 | 28 | 45 | +15 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 111 | 15.3 | 13:02 |
| 2015-16 | NYR | 79 | 14 | 22 | 36 | +4 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 133 | 10.5 | 13:40 |
| 2016-17 | NYR | 76 | 17 | 32 | 49 | +10 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 143 | 11.9 | 16:34 |
| 2017-18 | NYR | 76 | 25 | 19 | 44 | +1 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 172 | 14.5 | 17:21 |
| 2018-19 | NYR/WPG | 71 | 19 | 36 | 55 | -2 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 156 | 12.2 | 18:17 |
| 2019-20 | PHI | 69 | 23 | 18 | 41 | -6 | 34 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 175 | 13.1 | 17:44 |
| 2020-21 | PHI | 55 | 12 | 19 | 31 | -2 | 22 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 127 | 9.4 | 17:31 |
| 2021-22 | PHI | 48 | 10 | 21 | 31 | -20 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 126 | 7.9 | 17:55 |
| 2022-23 | PHI | 81 | 18 | 36 | 54 | -22 | 23 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 209 | 8.6 | 17:34 |
| 2023-24 | STL | 79 | 13 | 16 | 29 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 153 | 8.5 | 14:28 |
| 2024-25 | PIT | 64 | 13 | 10 | 23 | -15 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 98 | 13.3 | 12:03 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 777 | 181 | 257 | 438 | -37 | 225 | 33 | 10 | 26 | 1603 | 11.3 | 15:55 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
13 goals and 10 assists in 64 games — 23 points at 12:03 a night, minus-15, with 4 power-play goals and 8 penalty minutes.
50.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 56th percentile, across 602 minutes. His ice went 35-38 against an expectation of 25.13-24.70 — ten goals better than expected for and thirteen worse against, on a fourth line.
The Finesse Game
98 attempts at a median of 21 feet with 46 per cent from inside 20, converting at 13.3 per cent. For a player used twelve minutes a night, 13 goals is a fair return and the shot has never been the issue.
10 assists in 64 games is very thin for a player who was a 65-point centre six years ago. The hands are still there in a small space and the pace at which he can use them is not.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 217 and he does not play to it. He is not a forechecker, he does not finish checks, and 8 penalty minutes in 64 games is a large man who is barely in that half of the game.
He protects the puck adequately on the wall and that is the extent of the physical contribution.
The Intangibles
Twenty-fourth overall in 2010 by Chicago, and he refused to sign, which is how he ended up a free agent and on Broadway. 777 games and 438 points across five organisations.
He is 33. The contract signed in Philadelphia in 2019 has been passed along twice with money retained each time, and the last two seasons have been fourth-line minutes.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 602 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50.4%
- 57th pct
- Shot attempts
- 52.7%
- 80th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 35 for, 38 against. Expected: 25.1 and 24.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 44 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 65 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 602 minutes at five-on-five
- Noel Acciari26%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- PIT took 49.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.4% — 1.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 602 minutes at five-on-five — 22nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Tomasino | 53.6% | 48.6% | 48.1% |
| Kris Letang | 49.0% | 51.1% | 47.0% |
| Erik Karlsson | 49.3% | 51.0% | 48.0% |
53.6% together, 48.6% for him apart and 48.1% for Tomasino apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
153 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 14 feet. 46% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 15% from beyond forty.