The trade

Blues get: Kevin Hayes (50 percent of Hayes’ $7.14 million average annual value for the next three seasons retained by Philadelphia)

Flyers get: Sixth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft

Eric Duhatschek: This is the new emerging theme of the pre-2023 NHL Draft trading game: FREE PLAYERS! (Just so long as you’re willing to absorb the salary-cap charges associated with those players).

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The Predators set that precedent when they sent Ryan Johansen to Colorado and retained 50 percent of his contract — and it was the same essential blueprint that saw Hayes finally become a member of the Blues on Tuesday morning. Hayes cost the Blues an inconsequential draft choice (sixth round, 2024), and they were able to get him for one-half of his $7.14 million AAV.

It’s just flat-out theft by the Blues.

Sure, Hayes and Flyers coach John Tortorella didn’t see eye-to-eye on the nightly commitment that an NHL player needs to put into play, but that’s the reality of today’s NHL. Other than Connor McDavid and Cale Makar maybe, there are no perfect players. The job of a coach is to put a player in situations that maximize his opportunity to succeed and protect him in the areas where he has some perceived weaknesses.

In Hayes’ case, while his defensive commitment can waver, and he probably plays too much on the perimeter, he can be a crafty, effective playmaker, who contributed a career high 36 assists last season, tops on the Flyers. Hayes was second on the team in power-play points; and second in shots on goal.

At his original salary, he wasn’t providing nearly enough to justify his original compensation. But at half his salary? In an era when the salary cap is set to rise a year from now? On a Blues team that must replace Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly, who were both traded at the deadline this past season?

That’s real value.

Talent-wise, Hayes should easily slide into the Blues’ top six. Maybe more importantly, he’ll be a motivated player, someone who will want to prove to the Flyers — and the rest of the NHL — that he can contribute to winning.

Really, that’s going to be the bones of every transaction for the foreseeable future. Does a player deliver value for his compensation level? And at a little over $3.5 million, for three years, Hayes seems like a low-risk, high-reward addition for the Blues. Compared to some teams that are trying to hover in their competitive window, Philadelphia is tearing it down to the studs now — and doing so at whatever the price may be. It’s hard to imagine they couldn’t extract a little more given the amount of salary they had to retain.

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Blues grade: A
Flyers grade: C

Shayna Goldman: Considering the Flyers’ direction and the fact that Hayes didn’t mesh with Tortorella, it makes sense to trade him. As much as a bounceback season might have helped his trade value, there was the giant blockade of a $7.1 million cap hit that very few teams could (or would want to) afford in today’s cap-strapped market. So salary retention was a given for the Flyers.

But ideally that retention could have bought more than a sixth-rounder.

Considering Hayes’ limitations and the fact that another team in need of center depth, the Avalanche, just found it elsewhere, it must have tied the Flyers’ hands.

This deal at one point seemed like it would have more moving pieces, and when that fell apart, it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to be something exciting, at least not for Philadelphia.

As for the Blues, this is a team in need of help down the middle. The coaches experimented with winger Pavel Buchnevich shifting to the position late last year, which wasn’t an ideal solution. So now St. Louis has someone to play behind its number one, Robert Thomas, who is a legitimately capable playmaker. It does feel like stylistically that’s something they already have a surplus of, so it would make sense to find more shooters who can legitimately finish the chances those passers create, but that’s another problem for another day.

The one problem here is that Hayes can’t fill the role left by O’Reilly’s absence. While Hayes was used in a shutdown role in New York, his defensive game wasn’t perfect in Philadelphia. So it still feels like the Blues have to find someone who can absorb those minutes without dragging the team down.

Overall, it feels like Hayes at 50 percent salary retention is a fine bet to bring positive value in a middle-six role. It’s not perfect, but the options in free agency don’t exactly shine either.

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Still, this isn’t the move to bring the Blues back to the playoffs. They still need to do a lot more work, and it’s unfortunate that management couldn’t move out one of its big defensive contracts in the process. But at least St. Louis didn’t overspend to make this one happen.

Blues grade: B
Flyers grade: C

(Photo: Kyle Ross / USA Today)