John Hayden was hanging out on June 22 with some buddies from his home state of Connecticut who are now living in New York when he received a pleasant surprise. The 24-year-old forward had just been traded from the Chicago Blackhawks to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for John Quenneville.
“It was exciting for everyone,” Hayden said. “Coming to New Jersey, it feels like a homecoming.”
Hayden, who was born in Chicago, grew up in Denver and moved to Greenwich with his family when he was eight years old, called his mom, Diana, right away.
“My mom was tearing up,” Hayden remembered. “She was happy. My brother, Will, is in New York, too, and my sister, Catherine, will be there after she finishes up school. It’s good to be around family.”
Earlier that day, defenseman Steven Santini, a Boston College product, had been dealt from the Devils to the Nashville Predators as part of the transaction that brought P.K. Subban to New Jersey. This meant Hayden, who was a groomsman at Santini’s wedding in 2017, narrowly missed being teammates with his friend again; they played together at points during their youth hockey years as well as during their two seasons (2011-13) at the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
“We spent the summer working out together, so we had plenty of time to debrief on the trades and what went down,” Hayden said. “Even though I missed being teammates with him, I’m excited for him. Nashville is a good fit.”
The two actually fought each other in a December 2017 match when the Blackhawks visited Newark.
“It felt like fighting a brother,” Hayden reminisced. “That happened so fast. We’ve been competitive since we were little kids.”
The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder chuckled before adding, “I blame that one on him, but that’s part of the deal.”
Hayden’s grit is one reason why he was a part of the Devils’ deal with the Blackhawks.
“Johnny was a really great acquisition for us,” Devils head coach John Hynes said. “He’s a really smart player. He brings size. He brings toughness. He’s got good hands, good hockey sense. He’s a very good player, and I think he’s going to fit in well with how we want to be able to do things.”
Hayden has already shown his tenacity in spades in training camp.
“I just want to help on and off the ice,” Hayden said. “On the ice, I want to be hard to play against and be relied on. That’s something I want to focus on this training camp, showing that I can play in all three zones, all situations. And there are a lot of good guys in this locker room to learn from. That approach won’t change; I learned from a lot of guys in Chicago, and I plan on learning a lot from guys here.”
Hayden totaled 22 points (8-14—22) in 113 regular-season games and appeared in one Stanley Cup playoff contest with the Blackhawks since he made his National Hockey League debut in March 2017 right after the conclusion of his senior season at Yale. He recalls trying to soak up every bit of knowledge he could from the veteran Blackhawks, a group which included captain Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith.
“I was pretty close with them,” Hayden stated. “Those guys are proven on the ice -- they have championships – and they are great teammates. That just shows winning is about camaraderie. Those guys are tight off the ice and do a good job of helping the younger guys acclimate. I know it was a tough couple of years in Chicago, but that element of things, with the older guys offering advice and guidance, helped not only me, but also the other younger guys there.”
Hayden has sought wisdom from his older teammates since he initially moved to the Constitution State. Back then, he played with the Westchester Express, where he was teammates with Santini for the first time, the Greenwich Skating Club and Mid Fairfield.
He also suited up at Brunswick School for two campaigns.
“My experience at Brunswick was awesome,” Hayden said. “That was my first step of playing with and against older kids, guys three, four years older than me, which helped my development a lot. I also had really good mentors, from my coaches, head coach Michael Kennedy, associate head coach Ronald VanBelle and coach Steven Mandes, to all the older players on the team.”
Following his sophomore season, Hayden moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to begin his two-year tour with the NTDP. When asked what stood out most about his time in “The Program,” he replied, “Relationships, international experience, playing against colleges as a senior in high school, and living away from home, which accelerates off-ice maturity in general.”
Hayden continued, “It’s a rigorous program. We are balancing school with hockey. In addition to playing, guys are trying to improve their test scores at the same time. There’s a lot going on, a lot of moving pieces. I’m very fortunate I had the path I did because balancing school and hockey at Brunswick prepared me for the national program. And the national program unquestionably prepared me for Yale.”
Hayden, who was selected 74th overall by the Blackhawks in the 2013 NHL draft, recorded 91 points (50-41—91) in 127 games in four years at Yale.
“Going there was a no-brainer for me,” he recounted. “It’s close to home and offers a great education. (Head coach) Keith Allain had done an incredible job with that program and had a ton of success. They won the national championship the year before I got there. Looking back on it, what stands out are the relationships I built there on the team and also away from the team. You can’t live with hockey players your freshman year, so you are forced to integrate with the rest of the community. Some of my best friends from school weren’t on the hockey team and weren’t athletes. That, as a life experience, was pretty special.”
Hayden enjoyed another accolade as a senior when he was named team captain.
“It was an honor,” he said. “My classmates and the senior class helped me a ton, and we are still close to this day. The leadership responsibilities that all of us assumed helped prepare us for hockey and life. That was a very special year.”
Just five days after his last game with the Bulldogs, Hayden was in the lineup with the Blackhawks.
“It happened so fast that it was pretty easy to just play hockey and not think about being at the highest level,” Hayden said. “I got really good advice from Coach Allain, mentors that I stayed close with and everyone in Chicago. It was a quick transition. And it was a good experience being in Chicago at the end of the regular season and in the playoffs. I went into training camp the following season with that pro experience, knowing what to expect and having confidence that I was capable of playing at that level.”
Two years later, Hayden is once again working to forge his own spot in the NHL lineup. Except this time, he’s doing it much closer to home.
