Chicago Blackhawks sign prospect Gavin Hayes to entry-level deal

The Chicago Blackhawks invested in their future on Monday when they agreed to a three-year, entry-level contract with OHL prospect Gavin Hayes. 

Hayes showed explosive offensive qualities for the Flint Firebirds in 2022-2023, notching 81 points in 66 games. His 41 goals were joint 9th-most in the “O.”

The Blackhawks will have been pleased with Hayes’s production as a second-year CHLer; the team selected the winger with the top pick of the 3rd round in 2022 after a promising rookie season with the Firebirds.

Hayes’s big season moves his OHL career points total to 130 in 131 games. Chicago selected him with a pick acquired from Montreal in the Kirby Dach trade.

Because of his age, Hayes will return to the OHL in 2023-2024 if he does not make the Blackhawks’ NHL roster in the fall. The Hawks would gain little from throwing the 18-year-old in the deep end without the option to send him to the AHL.

Chicago will hope prospects like Hayes and Paul Ludwinski, who signed in March, can change the outlook of their outfit, which has not finished higher than 6th in the Central Division since 2017. 

The Blackhawks are slated to overhaul beginning next season, which will be their first without Patrick Kane, and, in all likelihood, impending UFA Jonathan Toews since 2006-2007. 

The Rangers traded for Kane at the deadline, while three-time Stanley Cup-winning captain Toews’s comments about prioritizing his health suggested he may leave the game entirely.

The Blackhawks are in a three-way race to the bottom with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Anaheim Ducks for superstar-in-the-making Connor Bedard. No team has fewer points through 76 games than Chicago’s 54.