Kevin Hayes lives his late brother Jimmy’s All-Star dream as 3-year-old Beau steals the show

SUNRISE, Fla. — Earlier in his NHL career, whenever Kevin Hayes was having a lousy day, he would pick up the phone and call his older brother Jimmy.

The elder Hayes, a seven-year NHL veteran, doubled as his younger brother’s biggest fan. Kevin would ask Jimmy to break down his game, and Jimmy would gush, “Man, you’re so good” in response. So good, Jimmy would say, that Kevin deserved to be an All-Star one day.

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Hayes never believed it would happen, especially not as a member of the Flyers. After all, when Hayes arrived in Philadelphia in 2019, the team featured the likes of longtime captain Claude Giroux, first-line center Sean Couturier, young goal scorer Travis Konecny, and promising goaltender Carter Hart. But nearly a year and a half after Jimmy died on Aug. 22, 2021, Hayes achieved his brother’s dream by participating in his first career All-Star weekend.

“[It] was kind of something that he saw in me that I never did,” Hayes told The Inquirer. “And I think he really thought I was eventually going to be one. It’s sad that he’s not here, but it eventually happened and it’s a really cool situation.”

Unfortunately, Hayes did not get to share the All-Star experience with Jimmy in Sunrise, Fla., where Jimmy played with the Florida Panthers from 2013-15. But a part of Jimmy lives on in his friends and family who made the trip to Florida, including Jimmy’s 3-year-old, hockey-crazed son Beau, who was glued to uncle Kevin’s side throughout the weekend.

With Beau along for the ride, Hayes turned All-Star weekend into a family reunion alongside fellow All-Stars Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, his cousins, and college teammate Johnny Gaudreau. Hayes’ mother, Shelagh, and three sisters also attended.

“It means a lot that you go through such a hardship with your friends and family and you have this small circle that kind of helped you get through situations in your life,” Hayes said. “And now you get to experience this whole weekend with those people that helped you the whole time.”

Jimmy was a terrible dancer, but that never stopped him from cutting a rug at family functions.

According to Hayes, “tall, goofy” Jimmy would dance to make everyone in the room feel more comfortable. While Hayes doesn’t break out dance moves like Jimmy did, he has tried to be more like his brother in the Flyers locker room, putting in an effort to make everyone feel comfortable in their own skin. When he notices someone in a foul mood, he tries to make them laugh. Then, his teammates can be their best selves on the ice.

“When I’m done playing ... I don’t really care if people think I’m good or bad [at hockey],” Hayes said. “But I would hope that when you ask all the teammates I played with, that they said, ‘Oh, he was a great guy. He’s a great teammate.’”

Last season, Hayes found it difficult to fulfill that role. On top of dealing with the grief of losing Jimmy, Hayes underwent a pair of surgeries to his abdominal area and dealt with an infection to his groin, limiting him to 48 games.

But even though Hayes was able to play on and off throughout the season, putting up 10 goals and 21 assists, he never completely felt like himself.

“All I wanted to do was play hockey and kind of use that as an escape,” Hayes said. “But then I was hurt all year. And then I would come back and people were like, ‘How do you feel?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, I feel great.’ I never felt great once. I just wanted to play to see if something good in my life would come about.”

After treating the infection and having a full offseason to train, Hayes is having a career season. In 50 games, Hayes has 15 goals (second on the team) and 30 assists (first) for 45 points (second). His .90 points-per-game pace is a career high. Hayes is also navigating a position change, shifting from center to left wing under coach John Tortorella.

“I feel like it’s the healthiest I’ve been in a long time,” Hayes said. “I feel like I’m playing well. I get voted to the All-Star game. It’s kind of come full circle with my brother playing here.”

Hayes had never had the opportunity to play in an organized hockey game with both of his cousins, Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.

With the cousins separated by more than 1,000 miles, competitions with Matthew and Brady leaned more toward unorganized sports like wiffle ball. When it came to hockey, they only watched each other play. One game, in particular, left an impression on a young Brady.

The Tkachuks attended one of Kevin’s Massachusetts prep school games but watched their cousin leave the game early when his skate broke. Despite missing the entire first period, Hayes came back to score a hat trick.

“That was fun growing up and watching Kev play prep,” Brady recalls.

It’s funny, Hayes said. Growing up, Kevin and Jimmy always looked up to Keith Tkachuk, an NHL star. But Tkachuk’s sons looked up to Kevin and Jimmy. To them, Keith was just an old fourth-liner, so Keith would ask the Hayes brothers to pass his advice along to his sons so that they would listen.

“It’s hilarious that now, it’s come full circle where we looked up to Keith, Brady and Matthew looked up to us, and now I’m like, I kind of want to be like Brady and Matthew again,” Hayes said.

Since all four cousins made the NHL, they’ve played each other one-on-one. They never had a chance to all play together at once — until the 2023 NHL All-Star game.

Hayes represented the Flyers. Matthew represented the Florida Panthers. Brady represented the Ottawa Senators. And Jimmy was there in spirit, through his inspiration of each of the players and his son, Beau.

As fun as all the All-Star events have been, the best memories have been the moments in between spent with family, Hayes said. On the first night in, the whole family met for dinner in an event that was “chaos as usual,” according to Brady.

The Hayeses and Tkachuks were joined by their other cousins, the Fitzgeralds, as well as friends who have basically become family, the Yandles and the Gaudreaus.

Both Keith Yandle and Gaudreau were close with both Jimmy and Kevin Hayes. When Jimmy died, it was Yandle who was with Kevin every day as his roommate in Philadelphia. He helped him through the grief and his injuries, helping him up the stairs if he needed it and listening to Kevin’s stories about Jimmy.

In Gaudreau, Hayes sees Jimmy’s positivity and belief. Jimmy was “obsessed” with Gaudreau, but when Hayes met him for the first time to give Johnny a tour of Boston College, he didn’t get it.

“I’m like, ‘There’s no way this guy can be good at hockey,’” Hayes said.

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Now, Gaudreau is one of Hayes’ best friends — and a seven-time All-Star. A member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gaudreau played with Hayes for the Metropolitan team as they faced the Tkachuk brothers on the Atlantic team in their first game.

With all of them together, it’s as much a celebration of their NHL careers as a celebration of Jimmy’s life and influence.

Kevin Hayes is a “glue guy,” a player with friends all over the league. But when he arrived in Fort Lauderdale, he found he wasn’t the most popular Hayes. Fans and players alike wanted to see Beau.

Hayes was nervous about having Beau on his own. The 3-year-old’s mother, Kristen Hayes, could not make the trip, so it was up to Kevin (and his mother and his fiancée) to take care of him. What if he cried? Hayes worried before the weekend.

Beau had a few moments of shyness, but after a few high fives, he was running around, showing off his goal celebration and pretending to be “Kevin.” The hockey-obsessed toddler, who has the “best [hockey] setup a 3-year-old could have in his basement,” had a few personal goals for the weekend: meeting Boston Bruin David Pastrnak, Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby, and Flyers mascot Gritty. To Hayes’ surprise, Crosby was just as excited to meet Beau.

“Someone’s like, ‘Oh, Sidney Crosby mentioned that he’s excited to see Beau,’” Hayes said. “And I’m like, ‘What the hell’s going on here?’”

Even when Hayes went to shoot a commercial on Friday morning, he got shown up by Beau.

“I ran into people last night,” Hayes said. “They’re like ‘Oh, we work for Franklin Sports.’ I’m like, ‘Cool.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, we filmed Beau for a commercial’ and I’m like, ‘He’s three. What’s going on here?’”

Hayes was incredulous, but he was also blown away with gratitude. The leaguewide response to Jimmy’s passing confirmed to Hayes that the NHL is the best league there is. And seeing everyone, including players he doesn’t know, treat Beau like a little superstar at the event that Jimmy knew Kevin would one day take part in just reaffirmed that.