Are Flyers Planning On Buying Out Kevin Hayes?

Are Flyers Planning On Buying Out Kevin Hayes?

Kevin Hayes is the Flyers leading scorer with 29 points in 31 games. Head coach John Tortorella thought it was a good idea to bench him. Something that Keith Yandle for sure is not happy about. Apparently, things have gotten so bad that Hayes might end up being a buyout candidate!

 VIA Monday morning’s edition of the “32 Thoughts” podcast:

“As for Kevin Hayes,” Friedman began, “this is a guy on pace for 76 points. Now, I’ve heard that this has been brewing. I’ve heard that Tortorella has told Hayes before that he doesn’t like the way that he plays without the puck all the time, and that they were headed in this direction if this didn’t get better. So I don’t think this comes as an enormous surprise to anyone around the organization, and possibly not even Hayes himself.

“But I still think when you look at it when the guy is on pace for 76 points and leading your team in scoring — there’s something about that happening that throws you for a loop. I’m sure in Tortorella’s eyes, he’s sitting there and saying ‘I warned you, I warned you, and it didn’t get better.’ And I’m sure Hayes is saying ‘Look, I’m scoring. This team isn’t winning games. How does this help the team?’ And I’m sure he’s like any other player and does not want to be benched.”

“I have to tell you,” Friedman continued, “I can’t help but look at this contract and say ‘Is this going to be a buyout at the end of the year?’”

“John Tortorella is in year one of how many? If this is a marriage that is not going to work, then maybe this is the solution; where he gets bought out and starts somewhere else. I can’t help but wonder if that is what the future is here,” Friedman added.

Hayes, 30, carries a cap hit of $7.142,857 million over the next four years. With three years to go on the contract after this one, here’s what the cap hit would look like if Philadelphia went this route.

2023-24 — $2,253,968
2024-25 — $4,753,968
2025-26 — $4,753,968
2026-27 — $1,611,111
2027-28 — $1,611,111
2028-29 — $1,611,111

The bottom line here is Hayes is overpaid and he’s not a first line center caliber player. If Torts wants him to match guys like Connor McDavid, Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz, Jack Eichel, and Nathan MacKinnon, then he’s going to be sorely disappointed. This Flyers team just isn’t that good and cutting Hayes should finally cost Chuck Fletcher his job.