Flyers trade Kevin Hayes to St. Louis Blues

Flyers trade Kevin Hayes to St. Louis Blues

Kevin Hayes will officially be on the move to the St. Louis Blues. After the controversy surrounding Torey Krug and his no-trade clause last week, St. Louis and Flyers struck a deal Tuesday.

There might be more moving pieces, but there is a framework in place. Philadelphia will acquire a 2024 sixth-round pick in exchange for Hayes, according to Kevin Weekes.

**Breaking News**
I’m told the @NHLFlyers are trading F Kevin Hayes to the @StLouisBlues for the Blues 2024 6th Rd Draft Pick, there could be another component to the deal.@espn @NHL @NHLNetwork @TSNHockey @DKSportsbook #HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/SyPz88jq2l

— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) June 27, 2023

Philly will also retain 50 percent of the remaining three years of his contract, per Frank Seravalli. Hayes had a good year for a bad Flyers team. He was one point off his career high in a season with 54. The former Ranger will now cost the Blues $3.57 million per season until 2026, a glimpse into why he was only worth a sixth-round pick.

The #Flyers are in the process of completing a trade to send Kevin Hayes to #stlblues.

They are retaining half of Hayes' salary for the remaining three years of his deal, resulting in a cap hit of $3,571,428 for STL.

First to report trade: @KevinWeekes.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 27, 2023

It’s a cap dump of sorts for the Flyers, who are slowly starting to gain some more cap flexibility. It also sends out a player who did not see eye to eye with coach John Tortorella, and the garage sale has no signs of stopping, with almost every player on the roster available for trade.

Feeling Blue?

It might be time to tear it all down for St. Louis.

They missed the playoffs in ugly fashion and now have a world of cap problems. The addition of Hayes eats into roughly half of their cap space. For now, building around Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou makes sense.

But what doesn’t help is over $60 million of their payroll is locked in for the next three seasons. Outside of the two players I just mentioned, everyone else is on the wrong side of 30-years-old. You’re in a pretty awful cap crunch with a bunch of declining players.

Obviously, there might be more at work here. Maybe the Blues are able to get out of a contract or two this summer, but Doug Armstrong has his work cut out for him. The glory days of 2019 are long gone and probably won’t come back anytime soon.

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Kevin Hayes will now play for the St. Louis Blues. The highly anticipated deal is now making its way across the finish line.

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