I see a lot of HR fans who hate Hayden Pike and I get it but I think what some people don't realise is the caricature that Hayden is supposed to represent. Hayden has a really important role in both the book AND the show and it goes beyond being Shane's best friend.
Hayden is the 'good guy' hockey player.
I don't mean that in a Hayden is The Best Guy ever kind of way-I like Hayden and even I can see he has some huge character flaws to work on. I mean it in the sense that Hayden in the real world everyman of hockey that Shane and Ilya and Scot Hunter aren't.
Hayden Pike has a good heart and he loves his wife and his kids while simultaneously good naturedly joking about Jackie being 'the ol' ball and chain' to his friends and not doing a lot of the heavy lifting of parenting. He'd punch anyone who dared talk about Jackie the way he talked about girls before Jackie. He goes out with boys and leaves her to do bedtime. He buys her flowers and takes her on dates. He never forgets an anniversary, but still forgets her college major. He's charming. He cares deeply for his friends. He can only do so in the broiest most macho hypermasculine way possible. He supports gay people but the worst thing you could accuse him of is being gay. He thinks rape is only when a girl gets attacked in some dark alley and not when one of his teammates gets a girl shitfaced and brings her back to his room. He's gonna put his daughters in figure skating and his sons in hockey. He'll shovel talk every boyfriend Ruby or Jade every have. He's gonna tell his sons to 'man up'. Sometimes he does the dishes to 'help out' around the house. Everyone likes him. He's a good husband. He loves his kids. He's a nice guy.
I grew up around hockey players and Hayden Pike is real. He's real in a way the main characters in the books aren't. Hayden Pike is what hockey culture twists decent guys into. He's not evil by any means. He loves deeply. His team and his friends and his family all mean the world to him and they're all one and the same. He's entirely a product of his toxic environment which he will never admit was toxic. His verbally abusive coach was just 'old school', his friends hazing and bullying of the new guy, or the black guy, or the gay guy was just 'teasing' or 'shop talk', don't you know boys will be boys? When one of his teammates gets arrested for a fight or a rape he never saw it coming, despite years worth of warning signs.
Hayden Pike is important to the story because he's real. He's what happens to the average guy who grows up a hockey player. He's what hockey really is, to offer contrast to Shane and Ilya and Scott who represent what hockey could be.
Hayden Pike is hockey. Love him or hate him that's just the truth.
