Hayton and more on Hounds

19-year old forward Barrett Hayton, who is still in the National Hockey League with the Arizona Coyotes, can return to the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.

First off, in regards to the current roster of the Greyhounds, and as they continue to try and find their way, myself and the fan base have to understand that, for whatever reason, the options for general manager Kyle Raftis are pretty much limited.

This Greyhound roster is made up of young well scouted players with Hollywood potential. If the Hounds want to contend for a decent finish this year of even make the playoffs, if things don’t turn around soon, it will be through some hard work and team building and help behind the blue line.

Meanwhile, Raftis has his hands tied with respect to Hayton who will not return in the near future as Arizona has chosen to burn a year of his contract and keep him up in the desert.

The other side of this is that Hayton could potentially return at some point if he doesn’t play 40 games. After 40 games, it would work against his contract in regards to a year off of his free agency if I understand the rules correctly. My source is as plain as day, and I believe it to be true.

I also take a lot of reading between the lines as the Hounds have recently named Ryan O’Rourke as captain and that wouldn’t have been done without some prior consultation with Hayton’s agent and the Coyotes management regarding his status moving forward. As you know, Hayton wore the ‘C’ last year. If I am incorrect in my inference ; well the onus is on me and I’ll return to just stating facts, but I do believe I am correct.

Yes, Raftis and the coaching staff knew straight up and proceeded this year with the mindset that Hayton is not part of the roster and to prepare accordingly. But, let’s not kid ourselves, everyone involved had in the back of their minds that there was in fact a snowball’s chance in  Arizona that Hayton could return and that is the reason this Soo club has the roster it has. 

Trades to better the team during this slump haven’t been made for that reason and that is why I personally think the rules need to be changed. The paying public is being short-changed with a team that is not set and many of the recent losses could have been avoided had Raftis had the ability to know what cards were on the table. This is my personal opinion and in no way represents Hockey News North.

This organization prides itself on building from its draft picks and developing the kids within and to say that it has been very successful is an understatement. The Greyhounds have been one of the best junior teams in country in past five years or more for sure. 

The club has not seen adversity as it currently is seeing in many hundreds of games and it’s not an easy fix as the club is young and trading off the skill that scouting and negotiating have assembled is not something that Raftis wants to do. 

Having said that, something has to and will be done, and with Hayton out of the picture, it’s going to have to be a crafty move. Recently the Hounds traded Ryan Roth to Sarnia and I am not sure if that was a good move as the little right winger has been tearing up the Sting score sheets averaging close to two points per game since arriving. 

So what is the problem with these kids that started off clicking and with confidence to go 4-0 out of the gate ? 

Many will say defence and goaltending are at fault and I would have to agree to a great extent as the Hounds remain near the top of the league with goals scored, so you cannot say that things are not going good up front. 

Yes, the goalies have been left out to dry by the back end on a few occasions, but I still think we need a goaltender that will steal a few games and make the big save when a veteran D gets deked out of his pants and that hasn’t happened very often.

The consensus is that overage netminder Christian Propp has not played consistently like a 20 year old in a league where the average age is about 18, and I’m sure that is not what Raftis wanted when he decided to use one of the OA spots on Propp.

As I said previously, I think Raftis has been working very hard trying to lure goalie Nick Malik from the Czech Republic, but with the Hounds playing like a bottom dwelling team, the longer this goes on, the harder it will get for Raftis to convince Malik’s handlers that this is the best route for the young rising star to develop, report, and showcase in front of scouts on a regular basis here in North America.

With that being said, I personally think that goaltending is the major issue facing the Hounds right now, but I cannot lay all of this on the shoulders of the two fine kids playing in net. 

I know there is a lot of pressure on newly named captain Ryan O’Rourke to lead this team, but since coach John Dean had his heart to heart with him a few weeks back after a slew of bad penalties he seems to have lost a bit of his edge.

I think O’Rourke is taking a few bad penalties here and there is a better player than when he second guesses his approach. O’Rourke seems to be a bit gun shy and less aggressive than before that chat. This is just my opinion. 

Sticking with the defence, I believe part of the Hounds woes are the fact that the kids may be talented enough, but when it comes to defending in their own end they are finding themselves out muscled at times. With two rookie defenceman, and the fact that even though most are about six feet vertical, the young assembled eight defenceman tip the scales on an average of only about 180 lbs. That is not the big muscle you need on the back end, but having said that they will surely fill out in time, but time for this team to make the playoffs is more of an essence.

The bottom line is that the skill is there but when you are scoring almost the most goals in the league and still losing consistently because you can’t keep the puck out of your own net, well then.

Meantime, is Raftis going to be able to sweet talk Malik to join the Hounds ? Is Raftis going to move Propp for someone more stable ? Is Raftis going to move some promising players that were brought up in the system to stabilize the blue line ?

Well the answer to those legitimate questions will be known soon, as this team cannot afford to keep losing, as the bottom line is gate revenue for playoff games and not making the playoffs is not an option.