Kevin Hayes, a key piece for how the Penguins’ roster puzzle will come together

The big forward scored a training camp hat trick and we examine possibilities on where he might end up playing

The placement for where Kevin Hayes would be in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup has been one of the more intriguing questions entering training camp.

Two days into camp, Hayes skated on the left wing of Blake Lizotte, with Noel Acciari on the right side. Hayes scored three goals today in a 4-2 intra-squad scrimmage against a team with Evgeni Malkin on it. (Lizotte added the other goal to keep all the offense for that line).

A September scrimmage means jack squat in the big picture, but as always it will be interesting to see what developments may follow. After a solid day like this, elements of Pittsburgh’s fourth line might be starting to form. Lizotte and Acciari are likely candidates to play on that line. Could Hayes end up joining them?

Dan Hopper didn’t examine that late-developing possibility, but he had a very good preview for Hayes drop.

Best Case Scenario: Hayes holds his own in the bottom-6 to start the year and buys the Pens’ prospects some time to gel in Wilkes-Barre, then his combination of filling in on the top two lines admirably and chipping in some power play points raises his stock enough that a center-desperate team trades something small for him at the deadline.

Worst Case Scenario: Hayes’ slowness and defensive deficiencies truly stick out in his miscast bottom-6 role, and his ice time keeps dropping until he’s in the Jeff Carter “4th line / healthy scratch” purgatory, unmovable because of his salary and blocking a roster spot from a younger player.

In some ways, it doesn’t matter what Hayes does, because the purpose of getting him was always to leverage the Pens’ cap space for a draft pick. But if they can also find some way to turn him into a helpful player, that trade will look even better. I’m highly skeptical of the direction Hayes’s game is going in and believe the above worst-case scenario is more likely, but I’ll absolutely be pulling for him.

For all the talk of competition in Pens camp, let’s not confuse that with the expectation of a full on youth movement just yet. Hayes, Acciari and Lars Eller are all north of 30 years old — and all are going to be playing NHL games this season if they’re healthy.

With Hayes starting out as a winger in practices, it does look like Pittsburgh might start him there, with the knowledge that the natural center can serve as an emergency insurance policy in the event they need a top-six center as an injury replacement.

That would mean it’s starting to come into focus that Hayes stands to be playing either with Lizotte and Acciari, like he did today or the other alternative would be to play on Eller’s line, presumably with a younger player like Valtteri Puustinen, Rutger McGroarty, Cody Glass or (stretching the utility of the word ‘young’) Anthony Beauvillier.

But a different ‘best case scenario’ could be if Hayes performs well enough in camp to saddle his way all the way up to Evgeni Malkin’s line. The combination might prove to be a short one, but Hayes is a good puck distributor and Malkin always wants the puck. Such a move could open the door for Michael Bunting to get a crack with Sidney Crosby and make the Pens deep enough to play Drew O’Connor on the third line.

How Hayes fits into the puzzle known as the 2024-25 Pens forward group will unlock a lot as far as where the other pieces can come together.