How much will Avery Hayes push into the lineup down the stretch?

There’s a famous story in sports about how in 1925 the first baseman for the New York Yankees, Wally Pipp, showed up to the ballpark with a headache.

Miller Huggins, the Yankees’ manager, noticed this, and said “Wally, take the day off. We’ll try that kid Gehrig at first today and get you back in there tomorrow.” Gehrig played well and became the Yankees’ new starting first baseman. This story first appeared in a 1939 New York World-Telegram on Gehrig’s career, in which Pipp was interviewed. Pipp was later quoted to have said, “I took the two most expensive aspirin in history.”

For the non-baseball fans (or young) out there, Lou Gehrig would go onto play in a then-record 2,130 straight games. And thus, getting “Wally Pipp’d” became a point for the last hundred plus years in sports about a replacement stepping in and never looking back.

Avery Hayes might not go down in history to the same degree as the legendary ‘The Iron Horse”, though after Hayes’s two-goal NHL debut it’s worth thinking about the situation for where he might go from here for the rest of the season. That debut was partially brought on, ironically enough, in a fourth line right wing spot because the typical holder in the lineup of that position, Noel Acciari, was sick for a game. It won’t cost Acciari his spot forever, though it has opened up a door that will be worth further exploring this season.

Hayes was sent back to the AHL for the Olympic break, he still looks on a high, recording a hat trick in his first game back. Last night Hayes picked up an assist and dropped former Penguin Zach Aston-Reese in a fight with a mean short left.

You can bet Penguin management has to be intrigued. The question now becomes just how much they’ll be looking to do to get Hayes a chance to get back into the NHL lineup. It’s a legitimate question since the current forward group figures to leave the break with full health with the normal fourth line featuring Acciari, Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte playing with an abundance of chemistry and success together.

Josh Yohe wrote a good line in The Athletic today, saying: “the second you think pieces of your fourth line are unmovable, you’ve got yourself a problem”. That would apply to moving in or out of the lineup, or even status on the team itself.

One area working in the Pens’ favor is the 23-player roster maximum disappears after the NHL trade deadline. Teams just have to be mindful to stay under the salary cap (no problem at all there for Pittsburgh) and the limitation of four post-deadline call-ups (which is also no problem since emergency recalls if a team needs them due to injury as also allowed), all of which should definitely open up the possibility to get Hayes and his good pal Rutger McGroarty back with the NHL squad after the March 6th deadline. From there it won’t be too difficult to rotate out a player like Acciari or Dewar at times to get some younger blood in the lineup.

That could also be an audition for next season. Both of Acciari and Dewar are impending free agents this summer. Hayes and McGroarty are waiting in the wings as natural, younger replacements for next season, if the management team decides to go in that direction.

Another alternative could be to consider moving one of Dewar or Acciari in a trade. The wisdom of doing that when the team is clicking and remove a piece of their success is questionable at best. Trade value on both players won’t be high either, likely making the reward not worth the potential risk of damage it could do to this team’s morale and unity. Had this season unfolded like the previous few in Pittsburgh, it would be easy to trade veterans as their contracts near expiry (including Lizotte, who has already re-signed) and move onto younger players. This Pens team is fourth in the Eastern Conference with a .625% points percentage, they’ve earned keeping their group together a while longer.

The good news for the Penguins is that it’s a good problem to have right now where they have about 14 forwards that, all things considered, they’d probably like to have dressing for an NHL game on any given night. The problem pops up in that only 12 can actually dress. That offers them a lot of options on what to do next in the course of managing the excess of players they have available now at their disposal, building in some comfort to hedge against future injuries.

One of those angles will certainly be how much they decide to work Hayes back in for NHL opportunities down the stretch. The Pens are starring down a very difficult upcoming March that sees 17 games in 31 days against many of the best teams in the league. They have a real grind coming up, the post-March 6th ability to have fresh bodies like Hayes and McGroarty on hand could be a real blessing to keep players fresh and inject the lineup with new options as they go along.

Based on that timeline a transition wouldn’t be as immediate or impactful as a Hall of Famer like Gehrig entering the picture and never leaving it, but as Wally Pipp knew all too well opening the door to a new option can lead to changes that end up lasting longer than just a single game. Hayes is making a strong case to be in the NHL picture down the stretch in some form, the answer to just how much opportunity he’ll get will be one of the more intriguing little storylines for the Penguins in the final sprint of their 2025-26 season.

Read the full article here