A turbulent end to his NHL career sees the veteran center end up in the KHL.
The band of former Philadelphia Flyers players signing contracts with teams overseas continues to grow with yet another addition to the crew.
Already this offseason, we have seen former Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula leave the NHL behind to continue his playing career in the KHL, and journeyman Anthony Richard ended his run with the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms to play in Switzerland.
Now, another former Flyers forward will join the growing group and will get to play against Zamula in the KHL, albeit a member of the opposite conference.
On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced that ex-Flyers forward Kevin Hayes would be leaving the NHL after 12 seasons, singing with KHL outfit Ak Bars Kazan on a one-year deal.
Hayes, 34, spent the last two seasons with the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring 17 goals, 14 assists, and 31 points in 92 games there, and did not appear in any of the Pens' Stanley Cup playoff games.
In his last NHL game, back on April 14, Hayes recorded two assists in a 7-5 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the team to which the Flyers traded him in the 2023 offseason to end his tenure in Philadelphia.
The 34-year-old former first-round pick flamed out under former Flyers head coach John Tortorella despite racking up 54 points in a career year in 2022-23, and Hayes was never quite the same after that.
Hayes now joins a high-octane Ak Bars team that finished 38-17-5 last season and lost to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the Gagarin Cup final.
On Ak Bars, Hayes will be lining up alongside the controversial Mitchell Miller, Alexander Chmelevski, Grigori Denisenko, and star goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov.
If this is it for Hayes in the NHL, the veteran forward finishes his career with 185 goals, 261 assists, and 446 points in 805 regular season games, including 63 goals, 84 assists, and 157 points in 253 games with the Flyers.
