scored twice in the first period<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe then went back to Wilkes-Barre and recorded a hat trick, including the overtime winner. OK, then.<\/p>\n
So, what does the future hold for Hayes?<\/p>\n
Many people within the organization are excited about seeing him in the NHL again. He projects as a bottom-six player, but that\u2019s hardly an insult. The consensus is that, while he\u2019s undersized and doesn\u2019t wow you with skill, there is a determination in Hayes\u2019 game that is going to propel him to the NHL sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
The organization expects Hayes to become something of a regular starting next season, and it would not be a shock if we see him in the NHL again this season. Who do people often use for comparison? A pretty famous guy named Max Talbot.<\/p>\n
Speed. Energy. Feistiness. Just enough skill to score somewhat regularly at the NHL level. It\u2019s an interesting comparison.<\/p>\n
Hayes has an energy about him that is immediately noticeable. The locker room felt different in Buffalo. It\u2019s already a good locker room full of teammates who genuinely like each other. You can sense it immediately when you\u2019re around them. But the combination of Hayes and Rutger McGroarty adds something. They\u2019re both big personalities and chatty guys. They\u2019re also completely respectful of their elders without being afraid to speak up.<\/p>\n
McGroarty loves talking about Hayes and, late last season, told this story: \u201cSometimes you\u2019re a little flat before a game. It happens. So, before those games, Avery always just walks up to you and says, \u2018I\u2019m gonna take a run at someone, or give a goalie a little slash on the first shift.\u2019 And then he does. And it\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Penguins have had far too many players in recent years who seemingly were just happy to collect an NHL paycheck. Hayes isn\u2019t one of those guys.<\/p>\n
If the Penguins stay healthy, I don\u2019t know where Hayes or McGroarty fit into the lineup.<\/p>\n
The top line figures to feature Sidney Crosby centering Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell. Evgeni Malkin\u2019s unit with Tommy Novak and Egor Chinakhov won\u2019t be broken up any time soon, nor will the fourth line of Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar and Noel Acciari.<\/p>\n
For that matter, the other three forwards on the Penguins\u2019 roster \u2014 Ben Kindel, Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau \u2014 aren\u2019t coming out of the lineup, either.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s your top 12.<\/p>\n
McGroarty, who has played much better in his most recent call-up, has solidified himself as the 13th man. And then comes Hayes.<\/p>\n
While the fourth line has been nothing short of magical this season, I\u2019d be surprised if it returns next year.<\/p>\n
Yes, Lizotte has a new deal, so he\u2019ll be around for the next three seasons.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t see both Dewar and Acciari getting extensions. You can\u2019t keep everybody, and frankly, extending all three fourth-line players in the same time span seems wildly unlikely.<\/p>\n
Maybe Dewar returns. The Penguins love him. But Acciari, who has had a wonderful season, is 34. I would be surprised if the Penguins bring him back. Sure, it\u2019s possible, and they have the cap space to bring back all three, but I wouldn\u2019t bet on it.<\/p>\n
At some point, you need to let younger players play, especially when you have younger players with a certain pedigree.<\/p>\n
The Penguins could theoretically have a fourth line of McGroarty, Lizotte and Hayes next season. That already sounds like a line that would be a pain in the neck to play against. It would cost less than $5 million combined and feature an average age of 25. That\u2019s a young, cheap, potentially outstanding fourth line. It would allow president\/general manager Kyle Dubas to spend serious money in other areas to make a good team even better moving forward.<\/p>\n
Trade deadline<\/p>\n
League and team sources have told me there is a growing feeling that Dubas will attempt to land a defenseman before the March 6 NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Kris Letang and Jack St. Ivany are both out with broken bones, Erik Karlsson has been operating at less than 100 percent in recent weeks and isn\u2019t getting a break as he plays for Sweden at the Olympics, and the Penguins\u2019 blue line in general has taken a beating in recent weeks. The schedule is about to intensify, which could easily lead to more injuries on the blue line.<\/p>\n
The Penguins could use some depth there, and people are beginning to expect Dubas to provide it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The season that was supposed to signal a youth movement still could. Stuart Skinner and Art\u016brs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,4785,85],"class_list":["post-470599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}