“We weren’t the best players in the NHL, no matter what my sisters say. But we were local heroes, and that was better than anything.”
Kevin Hayes appeared in over 800 games in the NHL. AP Photo/Matt Slocum
September 21, 2026 | 7:11 PM
3 minutes to read
Kevin Hayes — the Dorchester-native hockey forward who starred at Boston College and played 12 years in the NHL — is officially hanging up his skates.
Hayes, 34, announced his retirement from pro hockey on Monday, having played just five games for AK Bars Kazan in the KHL — Russia’s pro hockey league — before calling it quits.
The 6-foot-3 forward signed his contract with Kazan in late August, finishing with zero points in his brief tenure overseas.
After 861 games in NHL and 5 games in KHL, Kevin Hayes 🇺🇸 announced his retirement.
“I have decided to end my hockey career. I can no longer play at the level I am capable of because my body does not allow me to perform at my best. And I cannot accept not being in top form.” pic.twitter.com/ItcQb18FA0
— KHL (@khl_eng) September 21, 2026
”I have decided to end my hockey career,” he said in his retirement announcement, posted by the KHL. “I can no longer play at the level I am capable of because my body does not allow me to perform at my best. And I cannot accept not being in top form.”
Hayes closed out his hockey career with 805 games played in the NHL, scoring 185 goals and 446 total points while playing for the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, and Winnipeg Jets.
The Boston-born product was also the younger brother of the late Jimmy Hayes, who appeared in 331 career games in the NHL, 133 of which were with the Bruins from 2015-17.
While he never donned the spoked-B in his pro career, Kevin Hayes is forever linked to Boston.
Hayes established himself as a top prospect while playing for Noble and Greenough School in Dedham and was eventually selected 24th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Before turning pro, Hayes had a standout four-year career at Boston College. He scored 44 goals and 132 total points over 141 career games with the Eagles.
He won an NCAA title with BC during the 2011-12 season and was part of one of the most dominant lines in college hockey history alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Bill Arnold during the 2013-14 season.
That year, Hayes posted 65 points (27 goals, 35 assists) in 39 games, with Gaudreau adding 80 points (en route to the Hobey Baker Award) and Arnold posting 53 points of his own.
“He’s such a great representative of BC,” Boston College head coach Greg Brown said of Hayes on Monday afternoon. “Wears his colors very proudly, and his personality is someone that you want to be around. He’s always fun to talk to, always fun to be with. So he had an incredible career. I’m very happy for him.
“Hopefully, he’ll show his face a lot around BC now that he’s retired. But you think about his line with Johnny [Gaudreau] and Billy Arnold, and it was one of the best in BC history. So the legacy that he left here, and the person that he is, is someone we’re very proud of. And like I said, I hope we see him around often.”
Hayes turned pro after signing with the Rangers as an unrestricted free agent in 2014, shortly after Chicago’s rights expired in August of that year.
A versatile forward who used his imposing frame to outmuscle opposing skaters, Hayes posted six seasons with 40 or more points, including a career-best 55 points during a 2018-19 campaign split between New York and Winnipeg.
Kevin Hayes was also named a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy — given annually to the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey” — during the 2021-22 season amid a trying year for him and his family.
In August 2021, Jimmy Hayes died at 31 years old from a drug overdose. Along with overcoming the tragic loss of his older brother, Kevin Hayes also dealt with a blood infection and three surgeries en route to playing in 48 total games with the Flyers that season.
Hayes — as part of a tribute to his brother in a piece for The Players’ Tribune in August 2023 — reflected on Jimmy’s legacy, calling him “The Dorchester Batman” while discussing their respective paths from Boston to the NHL.
“Two kids from Dorchester … who woulda thought? But you know what the best part of being in the NHL with him was? We’d be back home in Dorchester grabbing a coffee in the neighborhood, and all of a sudden some kid would come into the coffee shop with his dad, and he’d be wearing me or my brother’s jersey,” Hayes wrote. “Seeing the HAYES on the back of the extra-small sweater always gave me chills.
“We weren’t the best players in the NHL, no matter what my sisters say. But we were local heroes, and that was better than anything.”
Andrew Mahoney of The Boston Globe contributed to this story.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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