The Arizona Coyotes have suffered a string of injuries to some important players including Jack McBain, Juuso Välimäki and Travis Dermott. Arguably the most important player the Coyotes are missing is Barrett Hayton who suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday night’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and will be out for the next 4-6 weeks. Hayton was the team’s number one center playing on a line alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, the Coyotes two best offensive weapons right now. André Tourigny spoke following the Coyotes 5-2 loss to the Jets. While Hayton’s two goals, two assists and four points don’t necessarily look all that impressive, his impact went far beyond stats. The 23-year-old was a player that logged 18:37 minutes per game while serving valuable time on both the power play and sometimes on the penalty kill. Hayton was never afraid to get his hands dirty, always providing a strong net presence and oftentimes fought along the boards to help the Coyotes maintain puck possession in the offensive zone. Say what you want about Hayton’s individual stats but he has really helped elevate the production of Keller and Schmaltz who lead the team in points. There is a reason why coach André Tourigny has kept Hayton on this first line since last season. He provides all these valuable traits that are not seen on the statsheet. It was clear that Hayton balanced all of the lines and now in his absence, Tourigny is forced to switch things around which will certainly mess with some chemistry and take a little bit of adjusting. Through these next few weeks, the team will miss Hayton dearly but must find a way to go on and win games without him which will be no easy task.
