BKarchitect
Registered User
Enters his prime? He’s 26. As a forward there’s a decent chance we’ve already seen his offensive peak.
Perhaps - but I'd suggest the environment around him will be pretty darn conducive to an increase in production. He's certainly not in heavy drop-off territory either and his center last year, Hayton, couldn't throw a beach ball into an ocean from a "capitalizing on chances" standpoint, and that's when he was healthy. When Hayton was out, he (and Schmaltz) played with Alex Kerfoot and Nick Bjugstad. It's pretty obvious why his stats tilted a bit more towards PP production last year.
The year previous with a healthy Hayton, he was the 12th highest even-strength producer in the entire league. But that year, the Coyotes PP was garbage and very few of his 86 points came with the man advantage.
If Utah has even a mid-PP next season and Hayton is healthy or the third wheel on UHC's top line is something better than Alex Kerfoot or Nick Bjugstad (which seems reasonable with an increasing level of talent making it's way onto the team and opposing teams now having to worry about Cooley/Guenther/Maccelli as they mature and give the franchise other lines that can create offensively instead of being a one-line team), I'd say a guy who averaged 35 goals and 81 points per 82 games through his age 23, 24 and 25 seasons could absolutely and reasonable be even better the next few years.