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Barrett Hayton's goal for Utah in 2024-25: Finish
Barrett Hayton’s goals for the 2024-25 NHL season could probably be reduced to one word: finish.
Finish a full season with good health. Finish the many scoring chances that he enjoys as the dirty-area, net-front presence who creates space for linemates Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. Finish his evolution into a top-six center.
Hayton thought he had achieved all three goals after a breakout performance in the second half of the 2022-23 season. After scoring just two goals in the first 38 games of that season, Hayton blossomed on the top line with Keller and Schmaltz, scoring 17 goals in the 2023 portion of the schedule to reach career highs of 19 goals and 43 points. He also played all 82 games thanks to a clean bill of health.
But on Nov. 16 of the 2023-24 season at Columbus, Hayton got in the way of a shot from defenseman Matt Dumba. It broke his hand. He stayed on the ice and incredibly, he scored on the same shift, but the injury shelved him for nearly three months.
The 2018 No. 5 overall draft pick has suffered an absurd run of bad luck in his young NHL career.
“I’ve definitely gone through some things and when you’re going through it, it’s never fun,” Hayton said on a conference call Monday. “But I think those challenges are something that just make you stronger and ultimately, you never know when [that’s] going to make the difference for you.”
Logan Cooley is expected to blossom into the team’s top offensive center, but Utah’s acquisition of top defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a draft-day trade cost the franchise top center prospect Conor Geekie. That makes Hayton’s performance all the more critical to the immediate future of the team. Utah does not have any other top-six center possibilities on the immediate horizon.
“We have big plans for Hayts,” GM Bill Armstrong said. “He’s somebody who can play in all situations and have a big impact on our team. He’s good on draws. He can play the PK. He can play on your top line. He can play a shut-down role. He can be used in so many different facets of the game. Hopefully, he can stay healthy and take that next step for us.”
In his limited time last season, Hayton had his scoring chances. He was one of seven Coyotes to average at least two shots on goal per game last season and many came from in tight, but his 4.5 shooting percentage was 23rd on the team and 637th in the NHL. He finished with just three goals and 10 points.
The unusually low shooting percentage reflects bad puck luck, but Hayton knows there are things he can do to remedy the situation; things that Armstrong, the development staff and the coaches suggested he work on in the offseason when they spoke to him at exit meetings last April.
“You’d like to see him get him off to a consistent point production over the course of the whole year,” Armstrong said. “If he can do that, he can not only help himself, but help the team take that next step.”
Hayton has spent time working with Utah skills coach Kyle Bochek, he has spent time in the summer working with skills coach Josh Wrobel, and he has studied a lot of effective net-front players such as Nashville center Ryan O’Reilly.
“But honestly, a lot of the in-tight work I’ve done on my own with some players I know,” Hayton said. “We do things I’ve set up to work on it and try to simulate some of those situations.
“A lot of those plays are kind of bang-bang plays where you’ve got a guy on you, the puck is bouncing and sometimes you get jammed up. A lot of the work for me has just been kind of learning the foundation of how you can get down there and be in the best position to capitalize on those chances and then just getting a ton of reps throughout the summer and kind of banging the pucks in so that it’s second nature.”
Simulation isn’t easy when you don’t have NHL defenseman cross-checking you in the back and the pace moving at NHL game speed.
“That’s the challenge of it, but that’s also the fun of it,” Hayton said. “It’s a unique thing to replicate those in-game touches. You try to make some of the drills reactionary and add that competition with other players throughout the summer. It’s easy to go out on a skate and mess around and do things at half speed, but those skates are never going to give you those game-like reps you need so I think just focusing on the intensity and the reactionary facet of it is huge.”
It is important to remember that this is not a role with which Hayton is familiar. He was not a space-clearing, net-front guy in his junior days, or in the AHL. He played with the puck on his stick. This role has required adaptation.
“It’s definitely unique,” he said. “But going back to juniors, I played with different kinds of linemates throughout my three years there and I played a little bit of a different style each year so I always felt comfortable adapting my game while keeping what makes me a successful player.
“I’ve definitely never played in the exact role that I play with Clayton and Nick. It’s definitely something you have to learn, but I’ve always been a player who uses my hockey IQ to be a successful player and that’s something that I take advantage of, playing with Clayton and Nick.”
Hayton’s meager offensive output brought him under fire from the fan base last season. It’s fair to expect better production from a top-six center, and Armstrong would like to see Hayton regularly pushing 20 goals, but coach André Tourigny consistently defended Hayton last season when others questioned his effectiveness.
Just as Armstrong did, Tourigny noted Hayton’s work ethic. He noted Hayton’s defensive acumen. He noted Hayton’s willingness to do the dirty work while his linemates executed their trademark high cycle. And he noted Hayton’s ever-improving performance in the faceoff circle, where he has won nearly 51 percent of his draws the past two seasons.
“He’s a really good pro,” Tourigny said. “He’s a guy who studies the game to get better every day. The guy is really passionate.”
Hayton, 24, signed a signed a two-year, $5.3 million deal with Utah on July 8; three days after the deadline for player-elected salary arbitration for which he was eligible. It’s clearly a prove-it deal without the term that 25-year-old players such as Lawson Crouse and Sean Durzi earned previously from the team.
Hayton is fine with that approach.
“I’m putting in a ton of work this offseason to get my game in a position to be a big impact player on this team,” he said. “I’m gonna go into camp hungry and I’m sure there’ll be a ton of competition. That’s what you want inside a team. We’re trying to take the next step as a group and you need every guy going into that camp hungry and wanting to make the biggest impact they can. That’s definitely my mindset and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Top photo of Barrett Hayton via Getty Images
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