Kevin Hayes Closer to a Return
Alain Vigneault press conference on Tuesday. We got an update on Kevin Hayes, who underwent offseason core muscle surgery and has yet to feature this year:
AV said Kevin Hayes will play next Tuesday at the earliest, there’s a chance in the “near future” for Ryan Ellis’s return .
— Taryn Hatcher (@TarynNBCS) November 9, 2021
Next Tuesday is the home game against Calgary, or “Cal-Gary,” as Barry Melrose would say. It’s the start of a three-game home stand. The Flyers have Toronto tomorrow and then a tough Friday/Saturday road back-to-back against Carolina and Dallas.
RE: Hayes, the Flyers are going to want to get him on the second line sooner rather than later. We surmise it might look like this once he gets going again:
- first line: Claude Giroux, Coots, Travis Konecny
- second line: Joel “Young Beezer” Farabee, Kevin Hayes, Cam Atkinson
- third line: Oskar Lindblom, Derick Brassard, James Van Riemsdyk
- fourth line: Scott Laughton, Nate Thompson, Nic Aube-Kubel
We’ll see. They could start Hayes out on the third line with Lindblom and JVR, but the third line is playing well, so you could justify keeping them together. Anthony mentioned moving Beezer to the fourth line, shuffling Brassard to the wing, and playing Hayes with Brassard and Atkinson.
Something to think about.