It appears that the Boston Bruins have lost the Kevin Hayes sweepstakes. It’s probably for the best really. While Hayes might have had to potential to shake things up in Boston, the Bruins just couldn’t afford to bring him on board this season. Not without trading away some of their own serious talent anyway.
Word's out: Kevin Hayes agrees to deal with Rangers. Location was important. MSG's an easy trip for #bigdaddy
— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) August 20, 2014
In the end, The former Boston College Eagles star chose to go with the New York Rangers. With Hayes out of the running it comes down to where will the Bruins put former Merlot Men Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell next season. The placement of those two forwards will set the tone of how many Providence Bruins will get their shot at the big show, and which members of the organization will be given their walking papers at the end of training camp.
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This is probably for the best. Had Hayes signed some sort of agreement with Boston, it would have thrown a lot of things up in the air. While the old Addams regime may have loved the occasional bout of chaos, the current powers that be certainly don’t. Hayes signing with the Rangers only increases the odds that Gregory Campbell will be moved to the wing in order to promote either Alexander Khokhlachev or Ryan Spooner to being Boston’s fourth line center.
Puck Prose
The big question now is do they move Daniel Paille up to third line (which is a good idea), or keep him on the fourth with Campbell and ask either Justin Florek or Matt Fraser to be ready to play the third line straight out of the gates in October. While there are a lot of interesting (and a few tough) choices to be made by the Bruins in the next fifty days, at least we won’t have to worry about Kevin Hayes anymore.