Mammoth match Hayton's 1-year, $4.775 million offer sheet from Devils

Barrett Hayton signed a one-year, $4.775 million contract with the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday after the Mammoth matched an offer sheet tendered to the 26-year-old center by the New Jersey Devils on July 1.

“I think Barrett's a key piece for us," general manager Bill Armstrong said. "He really anchors our team in a lot of different ways and creates a lot of synergy just with all the intangibles that he brings. I think he's someone that you look from afar and you'd be like, ‘OK, where does he fit in the team?’ But when you're on the inside with our coaches and building the club, he does a lot of things that people can't see and he's a valuable piece of our team and somebody that we believe we can move forward with and help us win a championship.”

Utah had until Wednesday to exercise its right of first refusal on Hayton, per section 10.3 of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. If the Mammoth had decided not to match the contract, they would have received a second-round draft pick as compensation.

“It wasn’t a quick decision," Armstrong said. "It was a decision we went into and we went down every rabbit hole we could to look at every different scenario with young kids coming in, the ability to not be able to trade a player, how does that affect (the team), the player being able to walk at the end of the year.

“We went down every rabbit hole we could to think of every possible scenario that could come our way, and at the end of the day, we love Barrett Hayton. You have to remember one thing about our team in a sense that we've had so many picks. We probably in the last five years might lead the NHL in picks. We don't need as many picks as we did back in the day for the rebuild. Now we've got good players coming in. What we need, and you can see this in the NHL with the trades that occurred for Bo Byram, and top-end picks traded for players, everybody in the NHL wants to win right now. Everybody in the NHL wants 26-year-olds with experience. With Barrett Hayton and what he's done and all the underlying numbers behind the scenes, that's what they want. They want an experienced player. It takes a while for a center to be good at center in the National Hockey League, and he's just getting into his prime."

Hayton had 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) in 67 regular-season games for Utah last season and no points in one Stanley Cup Playoff game.

Selected by the Arizona Coyotes with the No. 5 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Hayton has 155 points (65 goals, 90 assists) in 358 regular-season games for the Coyotes and Mammoth, and no points in four playoff games.

"I'm fired up to get back with my teammates and remain in Utah," Hayton said. "I've been with this core group for my whole career and it's exciting that we have an opportunity to do some special things next season in front of the best fans in the NHL."

Hayton was the first player to receive an offer sheet this offseason; the Philadelphia Flyers signed center Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet on July 3, but the Ducks matched the offer on Thursday to keep Carlsson in Anaheim.