The contract has an average annual value of $7.14 million.
The 27-year-old center could have been an unrestricted free agent July 1. He was traded to the Flyers by the Jets on June 3 for a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
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"Obviously as an athlete, July 1 and unrestricted free agency is definitely an intriguing idea," Hayes said. "But when I sat down with my agent and we kind of thought about what type of team I'd want to go and where I'd fit into the organization and the team, the Flyers were at the top of the list. Once the season ended, they were on a short list of mine that I was intrigued by. To be able to get traded there from the Jets and kind of get a head start in our conversations, I got to know the organization and I got to know some players a little bit. It was kind of a no-brainer. Ultimately between me and my agent, we wanted to go to a great city, a team that can win and a team that can kind of go for the Stanley Cup, and the Flyers are one of those teams, we think."
Hayes had 55 points (19 goals, 36 assists) in 71 games with the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers this season, including 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 20 games with the Jets after he was acquired in a trade Feb. 25.
"He checks a lot of boxes we were looking for," Philadelphia general manager Chuck Fletcher said. "We like his size (6-foot-5, 216 pounds), we like his skill, we like his 200-foot game. We like his age; he's just entering the prime of his career and he plays a premium position at center. So we think he rounds out our forward group out and will give our coaching staff a lot of options going forward. When you combine our signing of him with acquiring the two right-hand defensemen we did in the past week (Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun in separate trades), we just think as a group, we're stronger, we're deeper and we filled a lot of the holes we identified coming into the summer."
Hayes signed with the Rangers on Aug. 20, 2014, and had 216 points (87 goals, 129 assists) in 361 games in five seasons with New York, including four (2014-18) under Alain Vigneault, who was hired as Flyers coach April 15.
"It's always tough when you go to a new team and you don't know how you're going to fit in with the coach, you don't know how you're going to fit in with the players and stuff," Hayes said. "But playing under Alain**
