Laval Rocket defenceman Zack Hayes only found out he was making is 2025 playoff debut the morning of Game 5 on Sunday. With an injury keeping William Trudeau out of the lineup, Hayes was called upon to replace him.
It was the first game Hayes was playing in the post-season, his last game happening in the regular season finale on April 19 and it just so happened to be a do-or-die game.
“It was very exciting,” Hayes said. “Knowing how big of a game it is, but you’re doing everything all year just to be ready for an opportunity like this.”
He wasn’t without some nerves, however.
“I was definitely a little nervous,” he said. “Probably couldn’t eat as much food as I would have liked but as soon as we dropped the puck, the nerves went away.”
The 26-year-old was making a return to the AHL with the Rocket this season after spending a year in Finland. He spent time in the Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils organizations, even getting three NHL games with Vegas in 2021-22.
He played 46 games with the Rocket this season, often the odd-man out as the team stayed healthy and gained more depth as the year went on. It even took two Rocket defenders to be injured to even get Hayes in. When Tyler Wotherspoon wasn’t available for Game 4, it was Noel Hoefenmayer who slotted in as the first alternate. With both Wotherspoon and Trudeau out for Game 5, Hayes got his chance.
They didn’t ease him into the lineup, either. Hayes played on the left side of a pairing with David Reinbacher. In the first period, he often lined up against Rochester’s top line, and played on the first unit of the penalty kill.
He thrived. In addition to making a great play to keep the puck in and firing it on net where Sean Farrell tipped it in to make it 2-0, Hayes made several key play breakups and blocked shots.
“I just really wanted to keep the puck in, in all reality,” Hayes said. “And throw it on the net. We’ve been talking about getting pucks towards the net, guys being there, layers, tipping the puck and that’s exactly what [Farrell] did.”
It was a testament to the work that the team’s development staff, including but not limited to Alex Burrows and Francis Bouillon, does with players out of the lineup in order to get them ready for when their number is called. The group doesn’t just include Hayes, but also forwards like Luke Tuch, who played when Xavier Simoneau was out, and players yet to get a chance like Filip Mešár and Riley Kidney, among others.
“The big thing is doing everything you can do on the days when you’re not playing to make sure you’re ready for it,” Hayes said. “Conditioning-wise, making sure you’re getting puck touches, doing everything as game-like as possible because it’s a fast game out there.”
“It’s not easy to step into a playoff series, especially a Game 5,” said Rocket goaltender Cayden Primeau. “He stepped in, no kinks. He just went right at it. He played a simple game. He was huge for us, blocking shots, and he got a nice little assist.”
“Simple is my game. I like simple,” Hayes said. “We had structure and we stuck to it. Simple can mean a lot of things, but I think simple is sticking to the structure, to the pre-scout and everything we talk about going into the game and we stuck to that today.”
“Tonight we needed him, and he reacted well to the situation,” said Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent. “His biggest strength is he knows who he is and he knows what he needs to bring. He did that tonight and we needed it.”
The Rocket will start their best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series against the Charlotte Checkers on Wednesday night at Place Bell. The series will have a 2-3-2 format with both Games 6 and 7 in Laval if necessary.
