Kevin Hayes: Goalscorer

Three players who have skated with the Rangers this year have scored 20 goals. At the top of the 2017-18 season most of us would have expected (or maybe “hoped” is the better word) that Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad would be those three. But as it turns out only one of those players has reached the 20 goal mark: Zibanejad. Michael Grabner scored 25 goals for the Blueshirts before he was dealt across the Hudson. The Rangers other 20 goal scorer? Kevin Hayes.

In Hayes’s rookie year the stat that enchanted countless Rangers fans was his 21 primary assists during 5-on-5 hockey. Back then, the 6-foot-5 center appeared to have come from a mold similar to the one that had produced…