The New Jersey Devils may have already set one part of their offseason center plan in motion, but Elliotte Friedman’s latest read on the trade market points to a backup option that fits almost too neatly.
Last week, the Devils made the first offer sheet of the offseason, giving Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton a one-year deal that he signed. If Utah keeps him, the Mammoth face a tight set of restrictions: they would not be able to trade him for a full year, and they could not sign him to a longer-term contract until 2027.
If Utah lets Hayton walk, the path is simpler for them. They could wait until next July 1 and sign him then, while taking the second-round pick in the meantime.
The deal would carry Hayton to unrestricted free agency, and Sunny Mehta likely has a sense of what Hayton would want on a long-term contract. Still, one season can change plenty.
That uncertainty has left analysts split. Some see the answer as obvious: match the offer and sort out the rest later. Others view the deal as a poison pill designed to force Utah’s hand.
For now, the Mammoth have been able to handle the decision mostly out of the spotlight. That has not been the case everywhere else, especially after the Philadelphia Flyers sent an offer sheet to make Cutter Gautier the highest-paid player in the league, putting the Anaheim Ducks under the pressure instead.
Even with Hayton trending toward New Jersey as the days pass, the situation is still far from settled. As things stand, it feels close to a coin flip. There has been no real signal either way, even with rumor season in full swing.
If the Devils miss on Hayton, Friedman’s 32 Thoughts blog offered another name that could make sense: Shane Wright.
Friedman detailed this weekend how the Seattle Kraken’s relationship with Wright is nearing its end. New Jersey had a shot at Wright before, but chose Simon Nemec second overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. The Devils then moved on from Nemec a few weeks ago, trading him to the Calgary Flames for three draft picks and a low-level prospect.
Now, those assets could help them swing a Wright deal. In a strange twist, the pieces from the second-overall pick could wind up helping the Devils land the fourth-overall pick.
Wright’s path has not followed a straight line. He posted 94 points in the season before his draft year, then was sent back to the OHL for a shortened 2022-23 season and finished with 37 points in 20 games. He also played 24 playoff games for the Coachella Valley Firebirds that year, which was three times as many games as he logged in the regular season.
He spent most of 2023-24 in the AHL and produced 47 points in 59 games. For a player many once projected as a clear number-one overall pick, that kind of development has not matched the hype. In this case, that’s part of the appeal and part of the concern.
The logic behind Hayton and Wright overlaps in a big way. Both were once premium prospects.
Both have not quite become the players people expected. And both can help the Devils right now in a third-line center role.
The difference is in the details. Wright is younger, still has one more season left on his entry-level contract, and brings the higher offensive ceiling. But if New Jersey lands Hayton, the overlap is so strong that doing both would be hard to justify.
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