Some sad news from the hockey world:

31 years old? With a wife and two young kids? That’s terrible.

The Boston Globe has some more on Jimmy Hayes in a story updated around lunch time:

Jimmy Hayes, a native of Dorchester who won an NCAA hockey championship at Boston College and played two of his seven NHL seasons with the Bruins, died unexpectedly Monday morning. He was 31.

Law enforcement and first responders went to Hayes’s Milton home, where he was pronounced dead, a law enforcement official said. His death is not considered suspicious. The cause of death was not immediately available.

Hayes was drafted 60th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2008, after two years playing for the US National Team Development program and Lincoln Stars of the US Hockey League. He also won silver medals with Team USA in the 2007 Under-18 World Junior Championship and the 2009 U-20s, and with his brother, Kevin, played for the Americans at the 2014 World Championships.

The elder Hayes was a right winger. 6’5″, 215 pounds, and played more than 325 games for the Bruins, Blackhawks, Panthers, and Devils. His last hockey season was in 2018-2019, with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

RIP.