The Flyers’ Kevin Hayes is embracing John Tortorella’s challenge after the hardest year of his life

The other day, Kevin Hayes came across a clip of himself from last season, when he kept telling everyone he felt fine. Watching it, he was shocked.

“I was like, I cannot believe I looked like that when I played hockey last year, and I thought that I felt normal doing that,” Hayes said.

Every athlete wants to play, but Hayes’ insistence that he was alright was more than that. His evaluation was skewed by his competitive spirit, the pain of two surgeries, an infection, and the grief of suddenly losing his older brother, former NHL player Jimmy Hayes, just months earlier.

» READ MORE: NHL predictions: Will the Flyers bounce back under John Tortorella? Who will win the Stanley Cup?

Even the fact that for the first time in his life, he wasn’t excited to go to the rink each day failed to tip him off.

“I honestly think I just became accustomed to how I felt,” Hayes said. “Like, if Coach asked me if I was ready to play, I would assume yes because what I felt was the best of what I could feel.”

But a year later, with the infection gone, a summer to rest and train, and a new coach to push him hard, Hayes, 30, can finally see clearly again. The difference is “night and day,” both on the ice and in everyday life.

“If I have to go get something quickly, being able to jog, I haven’t done that for two years,” Hayes said.

Growing up in Boston, Hayes never dreamed he’d make it to the NHL. But once he got there, he discovered the journey was far from over. He describes his rookie self with the New York Rangers as an “out-of-shape offensive player.” That worked initially before he got “exposed” in his second year. He learned that to stick, you have to keep finding ways to improve.

Hayes started to think about nutrition and got himself in shape. With his new training regimen, he got better and better over the next two seasons, culminating in a career year in his fifth season, when he compiled a career-high 55 points in 71 games split between the Rangers and Winnipeg Jets. He parlayed that into a seven-year deal with the Flyers in 2019.

Hayes believes strongly that if you’re being paid to play hockey, you owe it to the team, the city, and the fans to be out there as many nights as you can, doing your best. His $50 million contract only made him feel more responsible, he says.

But in Year 2 in Philadelphia, that went off track when Hayes was injured and underwent sports hernia surgery in late May 2020. He came back for the 2021-22 season with “such a good plan.”

“That never came to fruition,” Hayes said.

On Aug. 23, 2021, Hayes’s older brother, Jimmy, was found dead at age 31 in his family home from fentanyl and cocaine intoxication. Jimmy was Hayes’ best friend.

A month and a day after Jimmy’s death, Hayes spoke publicly for the first time. He said being back around the rink with the guys really helped him get through the grief. He wanted to dedicate his play that season to his brother.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Kevin Hayes makes emotional return to Boston for the first time since his brother Jimmy Hayes’ death

That plan didn’t come to fruition, either. Hayes had undergone abdominal surgery three days before, on Sept. 21, knocking him out for more than seven weeks.

He remembers his home return on Nov. 16 for two reasons. After weeks of waiting to play, Hayes was finally able to honor his brother, scoring a goal and pointing to the heavens in tribute in a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames. But in that same game, Hayes leaned over to retrieve a puck and felt a searing pain.

“I literally did nothing for that to happen,” Hayes said. “I bent over.”

At the rink, everyone knew he was in pain, but they said you could never tell by his attitude. But then-teammate and roommate Keith Yandle saw a different story at home. There were days the pain was so great, Yandle had to help Hayes off the couch or up the stairs.

Following the injury vs. Calgary, Hayes missed six games before returning to the lineup on Dec. 1. This time, he lasted just over a month. But he also knew something was horribly wrong — there was a lump the size of a golf ball on his leg.

“And it was only getting bigger,” Hayes said. “It wasn’t normal at all. Clearly, we knew something was [wrong]. We thought it had to do with the surgeries.”

Luckily, they decided to go to an infectious disease doctor, Hayes said, and within 24 hours of his appointment, Hayes was told he “couldn’t sweat for six weeks.” On Jan. 18, the team announced that Hayes had had fluid drained from a muscle in his thigh and that he would be out 3-4 weeks. While helping Hayes change out his blood bags, Yandle said he had a tough time watching such a big, full-of-life guy brought so low by pain.

“I didn’t think anything could get worse after everything that happened last year,” Hayes said.

It wasn’t pretty, but Hayes returned in March and made it through the rest of the season, finishing with 10 goals and 21 assists in 48 games. While he was disappointed the Flyers didn’t make the playoffs, he said in exit interviews that he was grateful for the extra time to get healthy.

“Hopefully everything came at once and it won’t happen for a while,” Hayes said.

On June 17, John Tortorella held his first news conference as the Flyers’ head coach. As he fielded questions, Tortorella brought up three players. He talked about his previous relationship with forward Cam Atkinson and the need for the team to play harder in front of goalie Carter Hart. Finally, he name-checked Hayes, saying, “I’ve watched him from afar. And there’s more there.”

The critique didn’t come as a complete surprise to Hayes. He was one of the first people Tortorella called after he took the job, so he knew that the coach planned to be hard on him. A young Hayes might not have responded well, Yandle said, but an older, more mature Hayes welcomed it.

“I would call it a little bit of luck that I’m going to have someone who will hold me accountable,” Hayes said.

» READ MORE: Countdown to Flyers opener: 15 things to watch

Hayes worked his butt off in the offseason, occasionally checking in with Atkinson to see what he needed to do to prepare for Tortorella’s notoriously hard training camps. Talking with the trainers, Hayes aced the testing upon his return. Teammate Joel Farabee commented how visibly in-shape Hayes looked.

However, no test, workout, or offseason practice could prepare him — or anyone else — for Tortorella’s camp. Over the next weeks, the team skated and skated and skated some more.

He would joke to the trainers that if he could just survive the camp, he’d be fine for games. But after the culmination of the preseason, he realized there was a lot of truth in that statement.

“I’m not saying I won’t get injured this year, but it won’t be a similar injury to what happened last year because I haven’t done that much skating probably since my NHL career started,” Hayes said.

Through training camp and the preseason, Tortorella hasn’t said much. Hayes knows he’s watching. Everything the coach does has a purpose, and he’s evaluating people’s responses and body language.

“I’m sure there’ll be nights where you guys are writing, ‘Kevin Hayes has played four minutes’ because he doesn’t think I’m playing well,” Hayes said. “But I don’t think that’s going to leak into the next day.”

Hayes has embraced Tortorella’s challenge as a positive sign. It showed him that Tortorella sees him as a talented player and an important part of the team, and he thinks it will be a mutually beneficial relationship.

After missing the final 53 games last season and undergoing back surgery, Flyers center Sean Couturier attacked his offseason rehab, only to suffer an injury setback last month.

Sound familiar?

“I mean, it’s the same thing I went through last year,” Hayes said. “You feel good and all of a sudden you come to the rink one day and you’re back to square one. It [stinks].”

With Couturier out, Hayes is now the team’s top center. Hayes already feels the responsibility weighing more heavily on his shoulders. He’ll have to handle more minutes and will be asked to produce more offensively. Hayes also will have an increased defensive load without perennial Selke Trophy candidate Couturier around. Couturier can’t wait to see how he responds.

“I’m sure he’ll take it as a challenge and an opportunity at the same time to kind of prove some people wrong and show that he can be that guy that can drive a team if needed,” Couturier said.

His teammates can already see a difference. Travis Konecny, who will play with Hayes and Scott Laughton on the top line, said Hayes has been more vocal, stepping up in the weight room and taking over meetings.

Hayes said he and Konecny have played some of their best hockey together. With Hayes being a pass-first player, Konecny said he knows as long as he gets into the right spots, he should have opportunities to convert offensively.

“If our team’s going to do great things and the things we want to do, Hayesy’s going to be a big part of that,” Farabee added.

Believe it or not, Hayes used to be the quiet one. Yandle remembers Kevin as a quiet teenager while Jimmy was the louder, funnier brother. Now, Kevin is one of the biggest personalities in the Flyers room.

“You can see he’s learned lessons from his brother, trying to emulate him,” Yandle said.

The team needs Hayes’s leadership now more than ever with Couturier out and longtime captain Claude Giroux gone. Tortorella has already said the Flyers won’t start the season with a captain. Someone will have to earn it.

Whether Hayes ends up with a “C” or “A” or neither, with the organization emphasizing youth, Hayes will play an important role as a mentor. It’s something he’s always done. Farabee said he and his parents will always be grateful to Hayes for taking him under his wing when Farabee was a 19-year-old, and Konecny said he’s always taking guys out to dinner.

But just like the jury’s still out on a lot of those young players, Tortorella hasn’t fully formed his opinion of Hayes.

“OK camp,” Tortorella said. “There’s more there. There’s going to have to be more there. And it’s kind of my job to get it out of him.”

At long last healthy and excited about hockey again, Hayes is ready to get out there to answer Tortorella’s challenge — and to finally honor his brother through his play.