The New Jersey Devils kicked off July with a sharp, aggressive move Wednesday evening, signing Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton to an offer sheet.
It’s a one-year deal worth $4.775 million, a number that sits just under the threshold that would require a first-round pick in compensation. If Utah declines to match, New Jersey gets Hayton and sends a 2027 second-round pick the other way. If the Mammoth do match, they keep him - but they also lose the ability to trade him for a year, and by then Hayton would be headed for unrestricted free agency.
Utah has seven days to decide.
This is the first offer sheet in the NHL in two years, dating back to the St. Louis Blues’ successful summer 2024 bids for Edmonton Oilers forwards Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. In that case, Edmonton received second- and third-round picks as compensation.
Hayton, 26, entered the league as the Arizona Coyotes’ fifth overall pick in 2018 and came along with the franchise to Utah two years ago. His last season was a rough one by his standards: 10 goals, 25 points and a drop to 15 minutes of ice time per game.
Even so, the Devils are betting on the bigger picture. AFP Analytics projected Hayton at about $5.37 million on a three-year deal in restricted free agency, which makes this one-year offer land close to his estimated value. He’s not known as a big offensive driver, but he brings a strong two-way game, and that matters when centers are at such a premium around the league - especially with the unrestricted free-agent market offering so little this summer.
Utah has the cap space to match, but doing so would push the club within a few million of the ceiling. The Mammoth were busy on day one of free agency, landing Anders Lee on a $5.6 million deal and adding center Vincent Trocheck in a trade.
Those moves could leave Hayton looking more like third-line depth next season, while Utah’s clearest remaining need is on defense. And if the Mammoth match, they’d be committing to a player who would be eligible to walk to UFA status a year later, which only complicates the decision.
Whether this becomes a one-off or the start of a wider wave of offer sheets this offseason remains to be seen, but the Devils just made sure the market noticed.
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For Arizona fans still tracking the organizations draft pipeline, Moroz remains one of the more interesting names from the 2023 class, when the Coyotes took him in the third round. His path has been established overseas for now, but this deal adds a new layer to the question that always follows a drafted player with KHL experience: when does the transition from prospect to NHL contender really begin? [Read more 🡒]