October 20, 2021
The Boston Bruins memorialized the late Jimmy Hayes during their home opener on Sunday at the TD Garden. Hayes, who died in August at 31, played for the Bruins for two years during his NHL career. The Hayes family spoke out about his death, which tests have shown was caused by intoxication from a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl.
Photo courtesy Boston Bruins
Dorchester native Jimmy Hayes lost his life last summer in part due to a lethal combination of cocaine and fentanyl, according to a report from the state’s medical examiner that was made public last weekend. The former NHL and Boston College hockey star was found dead at age 31 in his Milton home on Aug. 23. His death, the state report said, is considered accidental.
On Sunday, the Boston Globe published a story by sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy that included comments from Hayes’s widow, Kristen, and father, Kevin Hayes, Sr., who are still mourning his death, but wanted to go public with the news, in part to help prevent future overdose incidents.
“I was so certain that it had nothing to do with drugs,” Kristen Hayes told Shaughnessy. “I really thought it was a heart attack or anything that wasn’t that [drugs] ... It didn’t make any sense, so it was hard. I was hoping to get a different phone call when they called. I was hoping to get some clarity and I was shocked to hear that it was that ... He never showed any signs of a struggle at home.”
The father, a well-known presence in Dorchester, told the Globe that his son had sought treatment in recent years for addiction to painkillers that he began taking after injuries during his playing career.
“You have a beautiful, All-American boy who made a terrible mistake and it cost him his life,” he told Shaughnessy.
Hayes— along with his brother Kevin Hayes, Jr., who plays for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers— is perhaps the most successful professional athlete to emerge from the Dorchester neighborhood. A product of the Dorchester Youth Hockey program based at the Devine Rink in Neponset, Jimmy became a national name in hockey circles while skating for Boston College, where he and his team won a national championship in 2010. He went on to a seven-year career in the NHL, including two seasons wearing the black-and-gold of the Boston Bruins. He finished his career in New Jersey in 2018.
On Sunday, the Bruins honored the hometown favorite during their home opener at TD Garden as players added “Jimmy 11” decals to their helmets.
He left behind two sons— two-year-old Beau and five-month-old Mac. On Monday, his widow further discussed Jimmy’s death on her Instagram account, writing: “Though we are shocked and heartbroken beyond words, I choose to remember my husband and the boys’ father by the enormous love and joy he brought us and so many others. This battle does not define him, and I will still tell my boys to #belikejimmy.”
