The Utah Hockey Club has been struggling since racing out of the gate and winning four of its first six games of the season. It has now lost seven of its last nine games, and head coach Andre Tourigny has struggled to find a lineup that can perform consistently.
Tourigny’s job has been challenging dealing with injuries, and by no means is this a piece directed towards him. Tourigny is in his fourth season coaching this team; the first three were under the Arizona Coyotes. In those three campaigns, Tourigny helped improve this team’s point percentage. However, you can tell he is desperately searching for a recipe that will yield more consistent results.
Related: Utah’s Inconsistent Play Leads to Loss to Predators
In this search for consistency, we have seen good things from some of Utah’s new line combinations, but at the same time, it has resulted in two players being underutilized who were off to great starts to the season. Those two are Barrett Hayton, who has been playing on the third line the past two games, and Josh Doan, who was sent down to the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Tuscon Roadrunners after nine games with Utah to start the season.
The Case for Combining Barrett Hayton and Utah Hockey Club’s Premier Playmakers
Hayton started the season on the top line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz and scored six points in Utah’s first five games. Since then, he has only recorded two points in his last 10 games as he has bounced around the second and third lines with various wingers. It has now reached a point where Hayton has only played just over 12 minutes in each of Utah’s last two games despite averaging 16:38 minutes per game this season.
Hayton has great offensive numbers: he is fourth in the NHL in expected goals, 16th in scoring chances, and 10th in high-danger chances at five-on-five. However, he is not a guy who is creating these chances on his own. Hayton is an excellent player off the puck; he finds open space in high-danger areas but is reliant on playing with linemates who can make those passes in front of the net. That is why he had so much success with Keller and Schmaltz, two great passers at the start of the season.
In addition to producing offensive chances at a borderline elite rate to start the season, he is limiting chances at the other end, and overall, Utah has been dominant statistically at five-on-five. While Hayton is on the ice at even strength, Utah has a 57.18 Corsi For percentage, 59.02 scoring chance percentage, and 64.38 high-danger chance percentage.
Hayton has been on the ice for as many goals against as he has been for goals scored, which could be why he is sliding down the lineup. However, Hayton is different from a guy who will drive a depth-scoring line. He is a tremendous two-way center who has dealt with poor goaltender luck while on the ice this season. He excels at playing off the puck and is the type of guy who complements star players. The top line of Keller, Hayton, and Schmaltz was highly consistent at the start of the season, and that’s a combination I think Tourigny needs to go back to.
Time to Bring Josh Doan Back to the Utah Hockey Club
This season was the first time Josh Doan made the NHL out of training camp. The Coyotes’ 2021 second-round draft pick first made an impact at the NHL level at the end of last season, recording nine points in 11 games. Doan did not get on the stat sheet as often to start this season, with Utah only registering two points in nine games.
Despite being held off the scoresheet in most games he played this season, Utah was winning its five-on-five minutes with Doan on the ice. During Doan’s 103 five-on-five minutes, Utah has a 60.64% Corsi For percentage, the highest among all Utah skaters. He also has a 62.34 scoring chance percentage, the second best on Utah, and a 54.55 high-danger chance percentage.
While Doan was not producing on the stat sheet, he was still getting his scoring chances, was taking the puck away more than he was giving it away, and was ranked second on the team in takeaways per 60 minutes at even strength.
Doan and Hayton have above a 56.57 expected goal percentage while on the ice for Utah at even strength. These two rank third and fourth among Utah forwards in expected goal share, with one of those four being Kailer Yamamoto, who was also put on waivers and sent down. It feels that Hayton is losing minutes, and Doan lost his roster spot for stats you can see in the box score. Still, when you dive into it, Utah was much more successful when Hayton was playing on the top line with Keller and Schmaltz and when they had Doan flying around the ice on their third line.
All stats via NaturalStatTrick
