Greyhounds top pick excited to get started

With the season over and focus shifting to the 2016-17 Ontario Hockey League season, Barrett Hayton is preparing to make the jump from minor midget to major junior in the fall.

Hayton was selected by the Soo Greyhounds ninth overall in the OHL Priority Selection in early April and was recently in Sault Ste. Marie to check out the city.

The 6-foot-1, 179-pound centre spent the 2015-16 season with the Toronto Red Wings after growing up in Peterborough.

“I had a very good year,” Hayton said. “It went great. They’re a great group of guys with great coaching.”

“It was a really good experience playing against the best players in the age-group day in and day out,” Hayton said.

The Red Wings advanced to the quarter-final at the OHL Cup before losing in double overtime to the Don Mills Flyers.

Hayton finished the OHL Cup with four goals and six points in five games, including a goal in the Red Wings quarter-final loss.

Hayton moved to Toronto prior to the season from Peterborough. He made the move to attend Upper Canada College, a private school in the provincial capital.

The 15-year-old had 36 goals and 73 points in 59 games with the Red Wings.

“I’m really a puck-possession player,” Hayton said. “I really like to make plays and score goals.”

“We were excited about getting Barrett,” Greyhounds General Manager Kyle Raftis said on draft day. “He’s got a high skill and high IQ. He’s 15-years-old and he’s probably got one of the best releases in the draft. When you look at the OHL game now, one of the hardest things to do is score goals and that’s something Barrett does.”

OHL Central Scouting called Hayton “one of the best players in the GTHL.”

Ahead of the OHL draft, Hayton was among a group of nearly 100 players invited to participate in the league’s draft combine.

“Being able to go through the tests on and off the ice and have some fun scrimmages with all of the other guys in the age group was a great experience,” Hayton said.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to attend the NHL one a couple of years down the road,” Hayton added with a smile.

Hayton called the week ahead of the draft a “really great experience.”

“The week moving up to the draft was a little nerve-wracking but really great,” Hayton said.

Hayton will be among the players attending the Greyhounds spring development camp. Dates for the camp have not been confirmed.