Kevin Hayes has found comfort zone in second season with Rangers

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- At this time last year, the 6-5 Kevin Hayes was tiptoeing his way through his NHL rookie season.

After a successful run at Boston College, Hayes was getting acclimated to his Rangers teammates and coaches, talented opponents, the heavier workload and living in White Plains. Through 18 games, he had two goals and four assists.

"Last year I was just happy to be here," the 23-year-old center said on Tuesday. "I didn't want to make any mistakes and get sent down. I was nervous and happy with playing low minutes, and, as I said, was just trying to not make mistakes. This year, I'm trying to be a difference-maker when I'm on the ice. When I have the puck, I feel confident; I'm not giving it up."

With that transition season under his belt, the Dorchester, Massachusetts, native has five goals and seven assists in 18 games and is receiving regular time on the power play, a role he began late last season.

As Hayes adjusted in his first season, finishing with 17 goals and 28 assists in 79 games and adding seven points in the playoffs, coaches sensed a maturity.

The biggest challenge for Hayes and other college players, Rangers associate coach Scott Arniel said on Tuesday, "is the amount of games that have to be played. You can see guys who played in college finding out around Christmas, early January, that it's almost overwhelming the amount of practices and games. That's something that didn't happen to Kevin."

Off the ice, he watched Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, Keith Yandle and "guys who've been in the league a long time, where they go for dinner, the routines," said Hayes, who now lives in Manhattan.

When he reported for training camp in September, the coaches had another challenge waiting. For the first five regular-season games, Hayes was deployed to the right of center Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider. He went back to centering the third line for the sixth game, and has been there since.

"We have to be a little bit responsible for that as coaches," Arniel said. "We put him on right wing, we put a lot of time into him at center last year, but we were trying to find some sort of chemistry, we had lot of new faces in training camp. Now that he's back in the middle, I think he's starting to get back to his game; that line with [Oscar] Lindberg and [Viktor] Stalberg, the longer they stay together, it's beneficial. Kevin can be an imposing player, he certainly likes to make plays, hold onto the puck; like everybody, there's still details of the game that he has to work on."

Hayes, who was Chicago's first-round draft pick in 2010 but chose free agency to sign with the Blueshirts, said all those practices and games raised his comfort level in the second season. "Now I'm trying to make guys around me better," he said.

Lindberg, a Swedish rookie who has seven goals and five assists, appreciates Hayes' advice. "He's played against all the teams," said Lindberg, "so we'll talk about defenses. Sometimes he'll say things like, 'These guys you can go wide on.' It's been helpful."