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Family of former Bruins winger Jimmy Hayes opens up about his cause of death, addiction

Former Bruins winger Jimmy Hayes struggled with addiction and died with cocaine and fentanyl in his system, according to his family who spoke to the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy in a story posted Sunday.

Hayes died on Aug. 23 — a shocking moment for both the hockey community and Hayes’s hometown of Dorchester. His wife, Kristen, told Shaughnessy she was shocked by the results of the autopsy, which the family received on Friday.

“I was so certain that it had nothing to do with drugs,” Kristen told Shaughnessy. “I really thought it was a heart attack or anything that wasn’t that [drugs] .