Ahead of their Saturday night home game against Utah Hockey Club, the Pittsburgh Penguins activated forward Kevin Hayes from injured reserve.

Hayes has missed the past eight games with an unspecified injury and last suited up Nov. 5 against the New York Islanders.

In 14 games, the 32-year-old has three goals and one assist.

Per coach Mike Sullivan, Hayes is a game-time decision vs. Utah.

Hayes, acquired in the offseason from the St. Louis Blues, is in the penultimate year of a seven-year, $50-million deal signed in 2019 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

In 2023, Philadelphia retained half of Hayes’ $7,142,857 salary upon trading him to the Blues.

Traded from St. Louis to the Penguins this past summer, general manager Kyle Dubas took on a salary cap hit of $3,571,429 to bring him aboard.

In a corresponding transaction, 22-year-old forward Vasily Ponomarev was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Ponomarev, one of the key return pieces from the Carolina Hurricanes last March in the Jake Guentzel trade, made his Penguins debut Nov. 16 and has appeared in three NHL games, averaging 9 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time per contest.

Ponomarev recorded no points.

The Moscow, Russia, native is in the final year of an entry-level contract worth $795,000 annually.

He likely was an attractive candidate in management’s eyes to clear roster space for Hayes’ return due to being exempt from waivers.

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