- Devils tendered a one-year, $4.775M offer sheet to Mammoth center Barrett Hayton
- Utah has seven days to match or take New Jersey’s 2027 second-round pick
- Read below for how Utah’s own arbitration filing left the door wide open
The Devils just pulled off one of the rarest moves in hockey.
New Jersey tendered a one-year, $4.775 million offer sheet to Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton on Wednesday night. The Devils announced it themselves:
Utah has seven days to decide. Match the deal and keep Hayton, or let him walk to New Jersey and take the Devils’ 2027 second-round pick as compensation.
Here’s the part that made this possible. An RFA usually can’t be pried loose this easily, but the Mammoth cracked the door themselves.
Utah filed for club-elected arbitration on Monday. Because the team filed instead of the player, Hayton stayed eligible to sign an offer sheet. New Jersey pounced two days later.
There’s a catch no matter what Utah decides. Matching the offer locks the Mammoth into a full calendar year where they can’t trade him. The one-year term also walks Hayton straight to unrestricted free agency next July, so keeping him buys Utah one more season before he can leave for nothing.
Hayton, 26, went fifth overall to Arizona in the 2018 draft. He posted career-best numbers two seasons ago with 20 goals and 46 points in 82 games for the Utah Hockey Club.
This past year dipped to 10 goals and 25 points in 67 games, and he skated in just one game during Utah’s playoff run. Take a look at his top plays from the season:
Across parts of seven seasons with Arizona and Utah, the center has 65 goals and 155 points in 358 games. He also captained Canada to World Junior gold back in 2020.
Utah’s front office has been swinging deals all day, adding Anders Lee and trading for Vincent Trocheck. Now the clock is running on a call they never planned to make.
