Former Rangers forward will miss start of Penguins season after camp injury
There’s a distinct New York Rangers connection to a significant injury sustained at the training camp of one of their Metropolitan Division rivals this week.
Former Rangers forward Kevin Hayes will miss the start of the Pittsburgh Penguins season with an upper-body injury. The 33-year-old forward was on the wrong end of a collision with defenseman Ryan Graves, a 2013 draft pick by the Rangers.
To cap off the Rangers triple play, the injury announcement was made Friday by Penguins coach Dan Muse, who previously was an assistant behind the Rangers bench on Peter Laviolette’s staff for two seasons.
Aside from that Rangers oddity, it’s a blow for their long-time rivals. The Penguins hope to regain their footing in the division after missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs each of the past three seasons. There’s not a lot of quality depth behind an aging core of stars, so losing Hayes for at least a month is suboptimal.
Hayes is a reliable bottom-six forward at this stage of his career and a veteran of 777 NHL games. He had 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 64 games with the Penguins in 2024-25, his fewest in 11 NHL seasons. But he won 52.1 percent of his face-offs and contributed as an experienced penalty killer.
He’s in the final season of a seven-year, $50 million contract, signed with the Philadelphia Flyers in June of 2019. Since then, his production’s dipped, he’s been traded twice, and personal tragedy struck. His brother, former NHL forward Jimmy Hayes, died at the age of 31 in 2021. And a year ago, Hayes lost his best friend, when NHL star Johnny Gaudreau was killed in a biking accident.
Related: Rangers camp notebook: Artemi Panarin leaves practice with injury
Ex-Rangers forward Kevin Hayes latest injured player at Penguins camp
The Rangers signed Hayes as a college free agent in August of 2014 after the 6-foot-5 forward refused to sign with the team that selected him in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks.
There was much hype around Hayes when he turned pro. Hayes scored 27 goals and totaled 65 points in a monster senior season at Boston College in 2013-14. That was two years after he teamed up with Chris Kreider to help the BC win the NCAA men’s hockey national championship.
Hayes scored 17 goals and had 45 points his first season in the NHL, when the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy. He had at least 40 points in four of his seasons with the Rangers, topping out with 49 in 2016-17. Hayes scored a career-high 25 goals with the Rangers in 2017-18, but was dealt to the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the 2019 trade deadline.
He has 438 points (181 goals, 257 assists) in the NHL with the Rangers, Jets, Flyers, St. Louis Blues, and Penguins.
His injury news comes two days after the Penguins announced that 21-year-old forward Rutger McGroarty is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. In addition, veteran forward Noel Accieri missed the start of a camp with a core muscle injury.
