Kevin Hayes was leading the Philadelphia Flyers in scoring with 29 points in 31 games when John Tortorella made him a healthy scratch in December 2022. The coach refused to explain it publicly, saying only that it was between the two of them. Hayes has now filled in some of the gaps on Spittin’ Chiclets, and the day got stranger after he arrived at the rink.
“So the day I get scratched, I go into the rink and there’s a kid walking out of the rink with his hockey bag on his shoulder, Lukas Sedlak,” Hayes said. “I’m like, ‘Sedley, where are you going?'”
The answer wasn’t what he expected.
“He’s like, ‘Can’t play for Torts anymore. I’m going home to Czechia. I quit,'” Hayes said.
Kevin Hayes on John Tortorella
The club’s public framing was that the Czech forward was leaving for personal reasons, and Tortorella said at the time that he had offered him a place in the organization before accepting his explanation. “We’re going to miss him,” the coach said.
Sedlak had been one of Philadelphia’s more effective players. Claimed off waivers from Colorado in October, he put up three goals and five assists in 27 games and ranked second on the team in both expected goals percentage and Corsi, behind only Cam York.
Hayes, meanwhile, did some quick arithmetic. A forward who had been in the lineup was now walking out of the building, which seemed to improve his own chances of being reinstated. Then Justin Braun fell ill. Then Zack MacEwen did too, leaving Philadelphia so short up front that a seventh defenseman had to play forward and Kieffer Bellows was called up from Lehigh Valley.
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None of it changed anything.
“We’re sitting in the pregame meeting in the morning and Torts is going through the lineup, and he’s like, ‘Kevin, you can come to the game or you can not come to the game. I don’t care. You’re not playing,'” Hayes said.
Hayes was in the fourth year of a seven-year contract carrying a $7.142 million cap hit at the time. He responded to the whole episode with more restraint than most would have managed.
“I don’t think I should have been benched, but he’s the coach, I’m the player,” he said back then.
Tortorella lasted until March 2025 in Philadelphia, finishing 97-107-33 across three seasons.
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