Utah Mammoth’s 2025-26 Report Cards: Barrett Hayton

The Utah Mammoth’s 2025-26 season is officially over. The team finished with a 43-33-6 record, good enough to clinch the first wild card spot in the Western Conference. Despite a strong series, the Mammoth lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 1 in six games. Meanwhile, their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, finished with a 34-28-10 record, placing seventh in the Pacific Division, outside of a playoff spot.

With the season in the books, it’s time to look at the 49 players under an NHL contract and grade their 2025-26 season. Over the course of this summer, we’ll take a look at their season, their future, and give them an overall grade. We’re going alphabetically by first name. Next up is Barrett Hayton.

Player Info

Age: 25

2025-26 NHL Stats: 10 goals, 15 assists, 25 points in 67 games

2025-26 Postseason Stats: Zero goals, zero assists, zero points in one game

Originally Acquired: First-round pick (fifth overall) in 2018 by the Arizona Coyotes

Contract Status: Pending restricted free agent (RFA)

Season Overview

If you look at Hayton’s career over the past four years, he has a weird pattern going on. Every other season, the forward plays a full 82 games. In between those seasons, he has an injury-riddled year that sidelines him for a good couple of games. If you’ve been keeping track, Hayton played a full season last year. The injuries returned this season.

The forward began the season in the press box for the first two games of the season, making his 2025-26 debut in the Mammoth’s third game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Hayton scored his first goal in the very next game, the team’s home opener against the Calgary Flames. 

The former first-round pick started his season on a line he’s been with throughout his career, centering a trio of Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller. However, after struggling through the first 12 games, producing only four points, Hayton was bumped down to the second line with Dylan Guenther and a mixture of either JJ Peterka or Kailer Yamamoto.

Hayton continued to play on the second line, but the offense still wasn’t coming. An illness kept him out for a game, but when he returned, the forward found himself on the fourth line. Eventually, Hayton became a healthy scratch after only producing one point in all of November.

Thanks to Cooley suffering a major injury, Hayton returned to the lineup in early December, returning to the second line. Slowly but surely, the offense began to come back. Hayton had four points in seven games during the second half of December. The end of January and early February brought a stretch of 10 games where he produced eight points.

While Hayton struggled after the Olympic break, he stayed in the lineup throughout late February and March. He ended up finding himself on the third line with Jack McBain and Michael Carcone during that time.

Throughout the season, it became more and more clear that Hayton is not a top center in the NHL. Maybe that was already obvious, but what became obvious is that he is a perfect third-line center. He played decently with McBain and Carcone and had the best defensive stats of his career. Perhaps it was a smaller amount of ice time and a new role that allowed Hayton to learn more about his overall game.

“Personally, I learned more about my game, more about myself, things I can take into this offseason to work on moving forward,” Hayton said.

Hayton power play goal 👏

4-2, Utah. pic.twitter.com/m9wF52iVwf

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) January 24, 2026

Injuries once again caught up to the forward late in the season. After a collision with McBain during a late March game against the Edmonton Oilers, Hayton made his way to the locker room. He wouldn’t return to the game or the lineup for the rest of the season, missing the final 10 games of the season with a lower-body injury.

As the Mammoth began their playoff series against the Golden Knights, Hayton once again missed games. While he continued to be a full participant in practices, he wouldn’t find himself in the lineup until Game 5, where he returned to the lineup, playing on the third line with Alex Kerfoot and Carcone. Playing in that game was a late decision, one that Hayton made himself.

Hayton only played around 13 minutes of Game 5 despite it going to double overtime. With that in mind, it wasn’t a big surprise when he was once again sidelined in a do-or-die Game 6, the game that ultimately was the end of Hayton and the Mammoth’s season.

Heading into the final offseason where he’ll be considered an RFA, Hayton wants to get better at his normal game. He’s a net front player, and while he’s shown success at that in the past, he wants to continue improving at producing in that area. Hayton also wants to continue working on his overall personal attributes, like his speed and his strength. 

“I’m getting right back to work, trying to get bigger, stronger, faster, and then just things within my game, faceoffs, finishing around the net,” Hayton said. “I’m a net front player, and getting in those tight areas. Just getting reps on reps with that. Those are my main things right now.”

The Future

While it wasn’t an ideal season for Hayton, it’s hard to see the Mammoth not resigning him, especially because he’s an RFA. Beyond that, it’s probable that we now know 100% what Hayton is on this team after seven NHL seasons.

With Schmaltz becoming a center, Cooley blossoming into a star, and other centers like Caleb Desnoyers and Cole Beaudoin incoming, Hayton is a bottom-six player on the Mammoth. He’s a good depth center who can, at most probably get you 50 points in a season, but realistically will probably be a 40-point player most seasons. He can hop into the top six if needed, but won’t be as good as all the aforementioned players once they reach their prime.

On other teams, perhaps Hayton is more. His work ethic is fantastic. He’s one of the best forecheckers on the Mammoth. The problem is that the center position is getting really crowded on the Mammoth. While Beaudoin and Desnoyers won’t be full-time NHLers for a couple more seasons, the team has five guys who can play center right now, including Hayton.

It’s easy to just say the Mammoth should move on from Kevin Stenlund, but he was a very important piece for the team’s run to the playoffs. Plus, he was more reliable because of Hayton’s struggles with injuries. It’s an interesting problem that the Mammoth will have to solve a couple of times over the next couple of years.

As for Hayton’s opinion on the matter, he wants to return. What else are the players supposed to say? However, it’s a little more believable with Hayton as of right now, especially because he’s spent his whole career with this team, and he’s coming off a not-so-great season, one he wants to improve on.

“Absolutely (I would like to return),” Hayton said. “I love this group. I love this city.”

A short-term deal would probably be the best situation for both sides. It allows Hayton to have another season on a good team to prove himself, and also gets him to unrestricted free agency. For the Mammoth, it allows them to see if Hayton can rebound and truly fit into their future plans.

Overall Grade

If you asked Hayton if this season lived up to his standards, he would probably say no. Especially with a new contract on the line, this season wasn’t a great one for him. 

While Hayton’s defensive stats were really good, his offense was pretty bad. In seasons when he played more than 50 games, he posted his worst shooting percentage of his career this year. Producing around half of the points that he did last season is a pretty noticeable dip. Not to mention, Hayton once again dealt with injuries for the third time in the past five seasons.

Overall, Hayton is getting a C for this season. Despite having the opportunity to build upon the best season of his career and starting the year on the top line, others showed that the top two center slots belong to them, and Hayton slipped into the bottom six. Strong defensive stats were a huge reason why the forward’s grade wasn’t lower, and it could be a big tool for him to use on the third line next season as he tries to rediscover his 40-plus point production.

If the trend continues for Hayton, next season should be one where he plays a full season and has the best offensive stats of his career. If he wants to jump back into the top six, that luck has to come his way because it’s a big hill to climb to get into a very crowded top two lines on the Mammoth for anyone. Even if that doesn’t happen, Hayton has all the tools needed to carve himself out a permanent spot on the third line where his game was the best this season.