On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli said Philadelphia Flyers forward Kevin Hayes is one to watch in the trade market.
Tyler Yaremchuk: When I took a look at what you put together, the first thing that caught my eye was right up in the top five. It’s Kevin Hayes of the Philadelphia Flyer. This guy has a ton of term left on his deal, he was nowhere even close to being on my radar as a name that I thought could potentially be moved. What has happened in the last 24 to 48 hours here that’s led to Hayes jumping into the top five?
Frank Seravalli: I think part of it is just the sheer magnitude of the names that have got off the board. When you see someone like Timo Meier — and I’m also taking Patrick Kane off the board because we all expect a trade to materialize with the New York Rangers this week once the Rangers have the requisite cap space. And Bo Horvat, and some of these other guys were the big-name rentals… now it’s time to get creative. So I’m told that the Flyers are also willing to get creative and that they are willing to retain some salary on a Kevin Hayes transaction.
He has three more years at $7.14 million. So it’s an expensive ticket. There’s no doubt about that. But this is an all-star center with size who plays a diligent 200-foot game and is responsible. He had a much better playoff showing for himself back in 2020 in the bubble with the Flyers’ with 13 points in 16 games. The real cash is lower than the cumulative hit on his contract, which was front-loaded. So, that’s also a significant part of it as well, which teams could be in the mix for, Kevin Hayes. I’m told that among the teams that have contacted the Flyers in recent days, the Carolina Hurricanes, after being out on Timo Meier, I think they circled back over the weekend.
The defending champions, the Colorado Avalanche — we talked about their need to properly replace Nazem Kadri down the middle. Kevin Hayes would fit that bill. And what about the Minnesota Wild? They are another team one that has been looking for a center for a long time.
I think the big question mark for the Wild and these other teams is how much money are the Flyers are willing to eat in order to make this happen. The Flyers could get a pretty juicy return if they’re willing to go down that track and retain $3 million or $2.5 million, somewhere in that neighborhood. That would make Kevin Hayes a very attractive player to these teams with three years remaining on his deal.
You can watch the rest of the episode here:
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