Colten Hayes (born January 31, 1990) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

who is currently an

unrestricted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

who most recently played under contract to the

Chicago Wolves The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team based in Rosemont, Illinois. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

(AHL), on loan to the

Missouri Mavericks Missouri (''see pronunciation'') is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it borders Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma, Kansas, a ...

of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

Playing career

Hayes played

Junior Hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

for the

Sicamous Eagles The Sicamous Eagles are a junior ice hockey, Junior 'A' Ice Hockey team based in Sicamous, British Columbia, Sicamous, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Bill Ohlhausen Division of the Okanagan/Shuswap Conference of the Kootenay Int ...

Salmon Arm Silverbacks The Salmon Arm Silverbacks are a junior ice hockey team from Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada. They are a part of the British Columbia Hockey League. The Silverbacks returned a BCHL team to Shuswap/Salmon Arm 12 years after the previous tea ...

Drumheller Dragons The Drumheller Dragons are a junior A ice hockey team based in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the 1,800 seat Drumheller Memorial Arena. They are members of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, which is a member of the Canadian ...

Langley Chiefs The Langley Rivermen are a junior ice hockey team based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Coastal Division of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). History The BCHL franchise was founded as the Richmond Socke ...

Okotoks Oilers The Okotoks Oilers are a junior A ice hockey team in the BCHL based in Okotoks, Alberta. The team plays its home games at the Viking Rentals Centre. The team joined the BCHL on February 1, 2024 after defecting from the AJHL along with four oth ...

. Hayes began his professional career during the 2011–12 season in the

, playing a total of 48 games for the

Stockton Thunder The Stockton Thunder were a minor league professional ice hockey team that was based in Stockton, California, and a member of the ECHL. The Stockton Arena was their home ice, with a capacity of 9,737. The team was an affiliate team of the New Yor ...

and the

Reading Royals The Reading Royals are a professional ice hockey team that currently plays in the ECHL. The team participates in the North Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. The Royals play their home games at the Santander Arena located in downtown R ...

. On September 27, 2012, it was announced Hayes was invited to Training Camp with the Connecticut Whale of the

. On October 5, 2012, Hayes was released by the Whale from their Training Camp. On October 6, 2012, Hayes was added to the Training Camp roster of the

Greenville Road Warriors Greenville is the name of several places: Canada * Laxgalts'ap, British Columbia, formerly named Greenville * Greenville, Nova Scotia, in Yarmouth County * Greenville Station, Nova Scotia, in Cumberland County * Lower Greenville, Nova Scotia, in ...

of the

. On October 10, 2012, Hayes was released by the Road Warriors from their Training Camp. On October 18, 2012, Hayes signed with the

Fort Wayne Komets The Fort Wayne Komets are a minor league ice hockey team, which currently plays in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In all of North American professional hockey, only the Orig ...

of the

. On November 26, 2012, after playing 10 games for the Komets, Hayes was released by the Komets, subsequently being picked up off of waivers by the

South Carolina Stingrays The South Carolina Stingrays are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in North Charleston, South Carolina. The Stingrays play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. They play their home games at the North Charleston ...

of the

on November 27, 2013. Instead of reporting to the Stingrays, Hayes signed with the

of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

on November 27, 2012. In the midst of playing for the Mavericks, Hayes's

rights were traded from the

to the

on January 9, 2013, in exchange for

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Phil Mangan. That same day, after playing 18 games for the

, Hayes left the Mavericks to join the

; the Mavericks consequently placed Hayes on Team Suspension. After finishing the 2012–13 season with the Thunder, Hayes returned to the

during the off-season, signing with the team on August 13, 2013, for the 2013-14 season. On September 25, 2013, Hayes was invited to the 2013 Training Camp of the

of the

. Hayes was later released from the Wolves' Training Camp and re-joined the Missouri Mavericks roster for the 2013-14 season. On July 30, 2014, Hayes was signed to a

Two-Way Contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

with the

, the

affiliate team for the

. On October 6, 2014, Hayes was assigned by the Wolves to the

, which had become a member of the

. On November 6, 2014, Hayes was recalled by the Chicago Wolves and, on November 7, 2014, was reassigned to the Alaska Aces of the

. On March 11, 2015, the Wolves reassigned Hayes from the Aces back to the

of the

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Colten 1990 births Living people Alaska Aces (ECHL) players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian ice hockey defencemen Drumheller Dragons players Fort Wayne Komets players Ice hockey people from British Columbia Langley Chiefs players Missouri Mavericks players Okotoks Oilers players Sportspeople from Maple Ridge, British Columbia Reading Royals players Salmon Arm Silverbacks players Stockton Thunder players 21st-century Canadian sportsmen