Coyotes’ Barrett Hayton week-to-week with upper-body injury

Arizona Coyotes rookie Barrett Hayton was the hero at the 2020 World Junior Championship gold medal game this month, scoring a game-tying goal after suffering an injury the day before.

But despite him playing through it for Team Canada, he’ll be sidelined for a bit following his return to the Coyotes.

The 19-year-old is week-to-week with an upper-body injury, a team official confirmed on Thursday. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Freidman reported that Hayton suffered a Grade 1 “AC injury,” likely referring to the AC joint in the shoulder. TSN’s Frank Seravalli had also previously termed the injury as a Grade 1 shoulder separation.

Hayton was injured on Saturday after he went shoulder-first into the end boards following a footrace to a loose puck. He played the next day anyway, on Sunday, in Team Canada’s gold medal game against Russia. Hayton scored a huge game-tying goal in the third period, followed later by the Canadians’ game-winner late in regulation.

Hayton was named the player of the game in the gold medal game.

The Coyotes announced on Wednesday that they’d recalled Hayton back from his loan to Team Canada, though that would’ve put the Coyotes over the 23-man roster limit. The Coyotes have yet to announce a corresponding roster move to make up for this issue, but it stands to reason that Hayton himself will actually head to injured reserve to make the roster compliant.

At time of this writing, Hayton’s name is not listed as being on the active roster on the NHL Media website, the team website or on CapFriendly, despite the Coyotes announcing his recall on Wednesday.

With goaltender Antti Raanta sidelined with a lower-body injury, Ivan Prosvetov is up from Tucson. Raanta, Michael Grabner and Kyle Capobianco have been the scratches recently.

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