All-Star Rep Hayes Having Career Offensive Season

Kevin Hayes is already on the cusp of surpassing several his full-season career highs. With 31 games left in the 2022-23 regular season,the Flyers' lone All-Star Game representative has 45 points (15g, 30a). The 30-year old forward has dressed in 50 of the 51 games that Philadelphia has played to date this season.

Hayes is just two assists away from tying -- three from surpassing -- his single-season best of 33 helpers he established in 2016-17 as a member of the New York Rangers. That season, Hayes had 49 overall points. He's currently four points from matching and five points from surpassing that high-water mark. Additionally, as long as Hayes plays in 30 of the 31 games left on the schedule, he'll reach the 80-game mark for the first time in his nine-season NHL career.
"It could've been a couple guys in this room," Hayes said on Jan. 4 after the NHL announced its initial 32-player list of All-Star representatives; one per team.
"It's nice to be nominated as an All-Star. It's a cool situation for me because, not to get emotional, but it's the only thing my brother [the late Jimmy Hayes} since he stopped playing hockey, wanted me to accomplish. I never honestly thought it would happen, but it did. It's cool. I know my family is very excited and his son, Beau, will be with me the whole time. It will be an extra special experience."
On a full-season basis, Travis Konecny has been the Flyers' most consistent producer and leads the team in both goals (24) and points (49 in 45 games played) as of the All-Star Break. However, Konecny was thrilled when he heard Hayes was chosen for his first All-Star Game.
"It's awesome. Kevin's been great in this league for a long time and has done a lot of great things. He deserves to be there. He's been carrying a lot of the offense for most of this year and doing a lot of good things. Everyone's happy for him. He's a good guy in the locker room, so you know he's gonna be loved when he's there too. Gonna be fun to see what he's doing and what events he's doing," Konecny said.
"I's pretty special for him. I'm sure he's gonna have his brother's kids there too, enjoying it and being a part of that. It's gonna be an awesome experience for him, and like I said, we are all really proud of him."
"TK" has already played in an NHL All-Star Game (2019-20 season). Additionally, for the first two months of the current season, Hayes and Konecny were linemates at 5-on-5 prior to Hayes being moved to left wing due to some defensive struggles at center.
For much of the time period they were linemates, Hayes and Konecny were virtually the lone Flyers forwards producing on a regular basis. More recently, the Flyers have started getting more balanced scoring up front as Scott Laughton found a groove, James van Riemsdyk returned from injury and young players such as Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost found their way onto the scoresheet with greater frequency.
Even after they were placed in different lines at 5-on-5, Konecny and Hayes have continued to play together on a semi-regular basis on the power play. Throughout the season, Konecny has been quick to credit the role Hayes has has played in his individual success.
"If you look at this season, Hayesy has been our best playmaker. If you get open, he'll find you. A lot of the goals I've scored were on plays he made. Not just me. He helps anyone who's on his line," Konecny said.
Twice this season, head coach John Tortorella benched Hayes for the third period of games for uncorrected lapses of puck management and/or defensive awareness. The second one carried over into Hayes also sitting out the next game as a healthy scratch.
Hayes, who was moved away from his longtime role at center and as a regular penalty killer to play lift wing, did not hide the fact that he disagreed with the head coach's decision. Both he and Tortorella have made clear, however, that the disagreement was strictly on a hockey level. It never got personal.
"Kevin and I have talked right on through this. There's never been a confrontation. There's been honesty, and I appreciate that from Kevin. He's been honest with me, too," Tortorella said on Jan. 24.
Added Hayes, ""I'm playing wing, [but] that doesn't mean I have bad blood with him. I've been in the league long enough where if I have a problem, I can ask him about it. He explains himself."
Hayes also recently said that he's enjoyed the chemistry that formed quickly on a line with Laughton and Wade Allison (prior to Allison sustaining a lower-body injury in the Flyers' January 26 game in Saint Paul against the Minnesota Wild).
"We're getting different lines contributing, and that's what every team needs. I think it's been coming together pretty well with me, Laughts and Allison. We've had some stability with all our lines for about a month now. It's been good," Hayes said on Jan. 22.
After hitting a few bumps in the road in portions of December, Hayes' offense has picked up significantly again ever since the leaguewide holiday break. Over the Flyers' 14 games in January, Hayes notched 15 points (6g, 9a) to lead the team in scoring. Konecny had 14 points for the month.
When the Flyers schedule resumes on Feb. 6, Hayes' play will be one of the keys to the Flyers' ability to continue showing the improvements that have evident over the last five weeks.
The Philadelphia Flyers finished their January schedule with a .643 points percentage (8-4-2 record), tying them with the Toronto Maple Leafs (also 8-4-2) for the NHL's ninth-best points percentage during the month. If extended back to the end of the leaguewide holiday break, the Flyers went 10-4-2 for a .688 points percentage (6th-best in the league).