- Utah is down to its final days to match New Jersey’s one-year, $4.775M offer sheet on Barrett Hayton
- Let him walk and the Mammoth collect a second-round pick from the Devils
- Read below for the catch that makes a match awkward for Utah
The clock is running out on Utah.
New Jersey’s offer sheet on Barrett Hayton has been sitting on Bill Armstrong’s desk since last Wednesday, and the Mammoth are into their final days to either match it or let the center go. The seven-day window closes this week.
Match the one-year, $4.775 million deal and Hayton stays in Utah. Pass on it and the Devils hand over a second-round pick and bring him to New Jersey.
The Devils spelled it out themselves the night they filed the sheet:
Here is what makes it awkward for Armstrong. Because it is a one-year offer sheet, matching locks Utah in. They cannot trade Hayton for a full calendar year, and he walks straight to unrestricted free agency next July 1.
So a match buys the Mammoth one season and nothing after it.
Utah spent the summer solving the middle of its lineup. Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee arrived in free agency, which pushed Hayton down the depth chart. At $4.775 million for a bottom-six center, the math gets tougher.
Hayton put up 25 points in 67 games last season, with 10 goals and 15 assists. Over the last four years he has 124 points in 264 games. That is a useful piece, not one worth boxing yourself in for.
For New Jersey, this is a waiting game. Sunny Mehta made the aggressive play, and now the front office can only sit and watch. Amanda Stein went inside the thinking behind Mehta’s offseason this week:
Either Armstrong matches by week’s end, or Hayton becomes a Devil.
