The Coyotes have made a decision when it comes to center Barrett Hayton. Craig Morgan of The Athletic reports (subscription required) that the 19-year-old will remain with the team and play his tenth game of the season and officially burn the first year of his entry-level contract. GM John Chayka indicated that he isn’t particularly concerned with the two thresholds that junior-aged players face (the other being 40 games on the roster which accrues a season towards free agency) but was non-committal about the idea that Hayton could be up for the year. Instead, they’re saying that all options are on the table right now. Hayton has had a limited role this season as he has averaged less than 12 minutes a night while spending eight games as a scratch but clearly, Arizona is okay with the slower development path.
More from the West:
- While the Blues will be without winger Alex Steen for at least a month, they’re unlikely to call anyone up to replace him in the short-term, suggests Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While it leaves them thin up front with just a dozen healthy forwards on the active roster, there could be some longer-term cap considerations at play. While Vladimir Tarasenko is on LTIR which allows them to easily recall a replacement for him and Steen, doing so would whittle away at their minimal remaining cap space (about $20K per CapFriendly); a team in LTIR on a long-term basis generally finishes with zero cap space remaining. With three players on the active roster with performance bonuses in their deals, anything that they earn will be carried over to next year’s cap if they don’t have enough cap room to absorb it this season.
- Wild winger Marcus Foligno is listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). He sustained a lower-body injury on Thursday night against San Jose and didn’t practice with the team today. Minnesota has 13 forwards on their active roster including Foligno so they won’t have to recall anyone from the minors if he can’t go; Victor Rask would likely draw into the lineup.
Sounds like St. Louis’ cap scenario now negates the idea of potentially acquiring Jason Spezza from TOR. Next step for Spezza: mutual contract termination. He deserves a bit better than how he’s been jammed by Babs.
Dang, thought they may be in on spezza, darn salary cap!!!
Yeah, if what Brian has stated above is accurate (I have no reason to believe otherwise, at this point), it takes STL out of the running. While there are probably more than just the two of us that think he should be getting a fair shake somewhere, the fact is that most teams seem to want to limit the number of older veterans in their bottom six, to help some of the kids develop there.
New wrinkle to this: that $20K number is “Projected Cap Space” (for the end of the regular season). The Current Cap space is $7.5MM, which means they (theoretically) could add Spezza and still not get to the 50-contract limit. So, unless we’re missing some “Double-Secret Probation”-type clauses somewhere, it looks like a definite maybe.