Dorchester native Kevin Hayes retires after 12 NHL seasons

Kevin Hayes, the Dorchester native who went on to star at Boston College and played 12 years in the NHL, hung up his skates.

Hayes, 34, announced his retirement from pro hockey on Monday, having played five games for AK Bars Kazan in Russia’s KHL.

The 6-foot-3-inch forward signed a contract with Kazan last month . He did not record a point during his brief tenure overseas.

​”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.”

In 805 NHL games, Hayes registered 185 goals and 261 assists while playing for the Rangers, Flyers, Penguins, Blues, and Jets.

He was also the younger brother of the late Jimmy Hayes, who appeared in 331 NHL games, including 133 with the Bruins from 2015-17.

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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 selected 24th in the 2010 NHL Draft by the Blackhawks.​

Before turning pro, Hayes had a standout four-year career at Boston College. He had 44 goals and 88 assists in 141 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 coach Greg Brown said of Hayes on Monday. “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 at least 40 points, including a career-best 55 during a 2018-19 campaign split between the Rangers and Jets.

Kevin Hayes was also named a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy — given 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 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.

From the source Conor Ryan can be reached at [email protected].