Hayton Heads Back to Junior Hockey After Valuable NHL Experience

GLENDALE -The Coyotes departed for Anaheim on Tuesday afternoon minus first-round draft pick Barrett Hayton, who headed back to his junior hockey team after spending nearly a week on an NHL roster.
Hayton, 18, didn't dress for either of Arizona's first two games of the season, but he gained valuable experience as a training camp, practice and game-day participant. He also skated in two preseason games before suffering an upper-body injury.

"Barrett had a really strong start to camp but unfortunately encountered an injury," General Manager John Chayka said. "He has an excellent growth mind-set so we wanted to give him the best opportunity to learn around our NHL players. He will go back to junior now and continue to evolve his game. He has a very bright future as a core piece of our organization."
Hayton plays junior hockey for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League. This will be his third season there. He produced 30 goals and 57 assists in 126 games the first two seasons.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet, who also played junior hockey for Sault Ste. Marie in the early 1980s, liked what he saw from Hayton, whom the Coyotes drafted fifth overall last June and signed to a three-year entry-level contract in July.

"His hockey IQ is really, really good," Tocchet said "That's one of the reasons why we picked him. His leadership skills are great. Now he's got to work on the physical part. He's an 18-year-old kid. He's going to grow, he's got to work on a few things physically like any young kid can do, and when he does that, he's going to be a complete player. But we have a process we'd like him to go through and he's asking the right questions, and he's a good kid. I really like him."
With Hayton gone, Arizona's roster stands at 22 players with 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies. Four players remain on the injured-reserve list.