Hayes traded to Blues by Flyers

Kevin Hayes was traded to the St. Louis Blues by the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday for a sixth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

The 31-year-old center had 54 points (18 goals, 36 assists) in 81 games this season after he was limited to 48 games in 2021-22 because of injuries. Hayes, who finished second on the Flyers in points and first in assists, also played in the NHL All-Star Game for the first time in his career.

"I'm definitely excited to kind of go to a new team," Hayes said Wednesday. "I don't think it's a situation where I've ever lost confidence in my game. I've been in the League for 10-plus years now and I know what I can do to help the team. I don't have anything bad to say about Philly or the coaches or [general manager Danny Briere] and 'Jonesy' (president of hockey operations Keith Jones) there, but I just feel like we kind of started to go our separate ways throughout the middle of the season. They were going in a different direction halfway through the year.

"Now that I'm on to a new team, I think it's a new start, motivated to, I guess you could say prove those people wrong. But I think anyone that gets traded would use that as motivation."

RELATED: [2022-23 NHL Trade Tracker]

Hayes has three seasons remaining on a seven-year, $50 million contract ($7.14 million average annual value) he signed with the Flyers on June 18, 2019. Philadelphia will retain 50 percent of the salary.

"When we started the summer we were looking to add someone into our top nine, preferably a centerman, and he fits that bill," St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong said. "What we're trying to do is keep growing younger players. We didn't want to give up assets like top picks if we didn't have to do it. We're serving two masters right now of trying to keep an eye on the future and getting a quality player that can help this group, and he fits that bill.

"The [NHL salary] cap is the cap, and it's real. And also, what would the value of that player be as a free agent? Everything came together for us to get something done. Usually things can get a little crazy on July 1, so we got out in front of it."

Selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round (No. 24) of the 2010 NHL Draft, Hayes has 386 points (155 goals, 231 assists) in 634 regular-season games with the Flyers, Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers. He has 26 points (eight goals, 18 assists) in 56 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

"We're hoping a change of scenery gives him a shot of adrenaline," Armstrong said. "I think Bob Gainey said if you're going to play 15 or 16 years in the League they're not all going to be Rembrandts. We believe in the player and we believe in his skill set. We believe we have the type of team he can flourish in. We have speedy wingers in [Jakub] Vrana and [Kasperi] Kapanen that we brought in that can help him, and with [Pavel] Buchnevich and [Jordan] Kyrou too, we believe we have some depth now that can make him a better player.

"Contract fits into our structure. Timeline fits into our structure. In the next few years, we certainly see the strength of our younger players being wingers right now, so it doesn't preclude anyone from getting into our group. So all the circumstances came together and we think he can compete in our (top) nine. We said at one point we wanted to add one more player into our top nine."

Neither the Blues nor Flyers made the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season. St. Louis (37-38-7) finished sixth in the Central Division. Philadelphia (31-38-13) was seventh in the Metropolitan Division.

"I expected to get traded, honestly," Hayes said. "I mean, it's not hard to figure it out with the way that the Flyers were going. I heard a couple of days ago that the Blues were a possible destination. My agent and I were super excited about it. I think it's a good fit. I think I'll fit in well with this team as a center with the with the wings that they have there, so I was surprised that I got traded but I wasn't too surprised. It's always surprising when you get a phone call from your GM saying we're going to send you to a new team, but I kind of knew it was coming."

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen, deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman and independent correspondent Lou Korac contributed to this report