The Arizona Coyotes are a team that is working hard to get out of the basement.
They've missed the Playoffs for seven straight seasons.
They've finally got a new owner (just kidding they get a new one every year) but this one seems different (so they say), and if that's true then maybe some of the disadvantages they've had to compete with (lack of money) will be rectified.
John Chayka is an aggressive GM who I like, but whose effect on the team is too early to call yet. He's been aggressive in trades and FA signings, and we'll have to wait to see how those play out.
But where Chayka has not been aggressive is in developing rookies.
Dylan Strome didn't get a chance to move up the lineup. They sent him back to junior when there was no reason to, then despite some great stats when he did play (with losers) they traded him.
Now we're seeing the same thing with Hayton - they very well may send him back to junior, even though his pre-season stats were excellent, and he's clearly possessing more talent than almost anyone else on the team.
The NHL is notoriously conservative with rookies, and there is a lot of hindsight posthoc logic about "rushing players" and not letting them develop used in order to justify this.
We have rock-solid evidence that players peak way earlier than we thought ten years ago. (21-23, as opposed to 25).
Teams haven't really used this information to their advantage though. Even though we know players are better sooner, we haven't seen this have any real world effect.
Not every player can step in to the NHL at 18 and there are definitely more psychological factors at play the younger a player is, but that doesn't mean you have to baby everyone until they're 24.
The tendency to overripen players seems based in tradition and fear, not any real facts.
The Coyotes need scoring and they're a team without very many high-end players. So they of course sit (possibly) their best one out of some fear that if he's not immediately successful he'll collapse in a heap of destroyed confidence and be ruined forever.
They also aren't a team built for the future. They're as ready as their going to be.
The talent they've got in Nick Merkley, Kyle Capobianco (who are both 22) and Barrett Hayton can't be wasted by slowly easing these guys into the lineup. They have more talent than most of the other players on the team, so they should play.
Hayton especially. He has nothing to accomplish in the OHL and he isn't allowed in the AHL. So put him on a scoring line and see what happens.
There's no risk. This team isn't going anywhere like it is, but maybe it can score more if, you know, they actually play their best players.
Hell, I might have kept Soderstrom over here.
If these guys have the psychological make up to make the NHL, if they have the ability to do so, they can probably do it at 18/19 if they can at 20/21.
The Coyotes need any edge they can get, and one way to get one might be to stop babying rookies.
Barrett Hayton needs to play this year, in a scoring role, for 18-20 minutes per game. It's way too frustrating to watch a team lose 2-1 in a game where their goalie was awesome and they're third most talented forward was in the pressbox.
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