From 'winging it' to owning the crease: Inside Barrett Hayton's breakout year for Utah HC

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Hockey Club forward Barrett Hayton camped out on the right side of the crease and slapped his stick to the ice, calling for the puck. It didn't come.

Undeterred, he slid across the ice and repositioned himself in front of Dallas goalie Casey DeSmith. When Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev sent in a pass/shot from the point, Hayton got his stick on it to score Utah's first goal in its 5-3 win over the Stars on Saturday.

It was Hayton's 20th goal of the season, which is the first time he's ever hit that mark in his NHL career — and it came from the play that he's slowly been mastering.

Hayton is the fourth member of the Utah Hockey Club to reach 20 goals this season — joining Clayton Keller (27), Dylan Guenther (27), and Logan Cooley (24) — but he's actually been Utah's best player in getting in position to score.

Hayton leads Utah in expected goals this season with 29.3.

"I guess that means you're creating chances, getting chances, putting yourself in good spots," Hayton said. "So I think that's a positive."

And that's not by accident.

Injuries limited Hayton to 33 games last season, giving him a chance to watch the game from a bird's eye view. He wasn't part of the daily grind, so he could zoom out and examine things from a different angle.

"I was watching so many games, and you kind of see where the space is better," he said.

Hayton didn't grow up as an in-front-of-the-net player. Like most first-round forwards, he had the puck on his stick a lot in juniors, controlling plays from the outside. He was pretty good at that, too, showing enough potential in that spot that he was taken with the fifth pick in the 2018 entry-level draft.

About two seasons ago, though, Hayton started playing on a line with Keller and Nick Schmaltz and started gravitating toward the crease.

"I learned that if I can get good around there, I could score some goals and also open up space for them to do their thing," he said.

However, it was mostly trial by fire. He admitted that he was "kind of just winging it" when he first began setting up in front of the net. He's tried to screen the goalie and get a stick on a puck — there wasn't much strategy involved.

But the willingness to simply try new things stood out to Utah head coach André Tourigny.

"At the beginning of his career, he would just go with the net (without a plan) — 'You told me to go to the net, I'll go to net,'" Tourigny said. "Now he's going with more purpose."

Over the offseason, Hayton studied where some of the best front-of-the-net goal scorers positioned themselves and noticed they all did things a little differently. Some were elite screeners, some had a knack for tips, and others made bank from wider angles.

"A lot of certain guys do it different ways that you just kind of pick up," he said. "You can't just lock in on one guy and emulate it — I'm not him, he's not you."

He took a little bit from several players to try and turn himself into a lethal presence in front of the crease. His expected-goal numbers show that something is working.

"He does all the little things right," Keller said. "He's always working after practice on tips, and we communicate a lot about different things on the power play. He's come a long way from the start of the year."

But there's still another level Hayton thinks he can reach. He figured out how to create Grade-A chances; now, he wants to make sure he's capitalizing on them.

"As crazy as it sounds, if you're a foot further in one direction than the other, you can get it by the goalie, rather than having to get it over a pad and stuff like that," he said. "I think a lot of those are great chances, but they're pretty hard to score. I definitely can use the space a little bit better so then it feels like an empty-netter type thing."

If he figures that out, this likely won't be his last 20-goal campaign.

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