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10 Questions as the Utah Hockey Club begins its inaugural NHL season
You won’t find a franchise in recent memory that had a shorter runway than the Utah Hockey Club. On April 19, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held a joint news conference with Alex Meruelo in downtown Phoenix to announce the relocation of the Coyotes to Salt Lake City.
Five and a half months later, the still unnamed team will drop the puck on the 2024-25 season. There will be hiccups on the business side. There will be frustrations with the progress of facilities — whether new or renovated — but consider that aforementioned timeline before rendering judgment on any of those projects this season. Consider how much more time Vegas and Seattle — two true expansion franchises — had to get this right.
Owners Ryan and Ashley Smith should be commended for pulling this off at all. And they should be commended for providing the level of support that the players, coaches and managers felt was sorely lacking in Arizona — the level of support this franchise so richly deserved after years of bare-bones operations in its old home.
In a way, the timing for perfecting the Delta Center, the practice facility, the team’s uniforms, the team name and other areas of the organization syncs with the timeline of the on-ice product. Remember that the Coyotes hoped to have their new Tempe arena built in time for the 2027-2028 season; a point at which GM Bill Armstrong expected the team to fully emerge from its rebuild.
Utah might surprise this season by hanging around the playoff line, or even sneaking in off the fuel of a new fanbase and the shedding of all of that previous baggage, but the best days for this team are yet to come.
In the meantime, Utah fans can just bask in the arrival of NHL hockey; the buzz of a new team, new local celebrities, and a new season. It all begins on Tuesday against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.
Here are 10 questions as the Utah Hockey Club begins its inaugural NHL season.
What can we expect from Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther?
Growth is the simplest goal, but the players are at different stages of that process. Logan Cooley, 20, has just one season of pro experience. Dylan Guenther, 21, is a year ahead of him on that path.
While Cooley hasn’t endured the challenges of being sent back to the World Junior Championship, the WHL or the AHL — challenges that helped Guenther develop a more well-rounded game — he battled through a full NHL season which presents its own challenges.
“Dylan earned his stripes and he’s ready to prove that he’s a full-time NHL player; someone that produces second-line points,” Armstrong said. “But Logan has an edge. He wants to prove that he is the number one center, and even though he is young and he hasn’t had all those experiences, he wants to show that he’s capable of playing both sides of the puck and putting up points. I don’t really worry about his past as much because of his competitiveness and his wanting to win.”
Cooley and Guenther are going to start the season on a line together. They showed chemistry last season. If they rekindle it, this could be a pairing that Utah fans are watching for a long time.
When will Nick Bjugstad and John Marino be ready to play?
Armstrong’s most recent projection for Bjugstad’s return from an upper-body injury is Nov. 1. The team has not revealed what is ailing Bjugstad. He has been skating with the team, but nobody has publicly altered his timeline yet so the lines will be juggled in his absence, with Alex Kerfoot likely starting between Matias Maccelli and Lawson Crouse.
Marino will miss the season opener, but the team will know more about his timeline this week. When he is ready, coach André Tourigny said he will play on the top pair with Mikhail Sergachev.
Both Bjugstad and Marino began the season on injured reserve.
What is the state of the goaltending?
Connor Ingram produced a watershed season in 2023-24. He signed a three-year, $5,850,000 contract extension, he emerged as one of the top goaltenders in the NHL, and he won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy after nearly retiring due to an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and lingering depression before he sought help through the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in 2021.
Can he sustain his level of play last season when he was among the top goaltenders in goals saved above expected? The UHC hopes so because its key prospects — Michael Hrabal (UMass), Melker Thelin (Björoklöven, Sweden) and Carsen Musser (Colorado College) — are not even ready to make the leap to the North American pro game yet.
That means Ingram, who has two years left on that contract, and Karel Vejmelka, who is entering the final year of his contract, must hold down the fort a little longer without any stiff competition even coming from the AHL level.
After bursting onto the scene in 2020-21, Vejmelka has plateaued and maybe even regressed a bit with a goals saved above expected that ranked 66th in the NHL last season. This is an important year for Vejmelka if he wants to earn another contract. On the one hand, there isn’t really anyone in the system ready to push him, but Utah could always sign a free agent if they feel they have better options.
Is Mikhail Sergachev a No. 1 defenseman?
Utah’s management and scouting staffs think so. Between Darryl Plandowski’s amateur scouting of Sergachev, and pro scouting director Alan Hepple’s lengthy notes on the team’s biggest offseason acquisition — from Sergachev’s junior days through his Lightning day — the UHC has a thorough read on what type of player they are bringing in.
Trades are always fraught with risk, and Armstrong knows that this is his first major trade so it will, in some ways, define his tenure as GM. But here’s the truth of it: Even if Sergachev, 26, ends up as a better fit in the No. 2/3 slot, his contract will allow the team to pursue another option for the No. 1 slot. His $8.5-million AAV through the 2030-31 season will look better as each season progresses and the cap continues to rise. That AAV already ranks 14th among NHL defensemen, and many more D-men will pass him in the next few years.
“No. 1 defensemen are hard to get and it’s really hard to get somebody at that age where they’re not even at their peak yet,” Armstrong said. “We feel like on the ice, he’s special. His reads, his ability to run power plays, kill penalties and just play a shit-ton of minutes gives him the ability to be a number one D.
“He’s certainly got to prove that he can manage those minutes and be effective in those minutes because it’s a lot of minutes in a lot of different situations. But when you do get a number one guy like that, it can alter the course of your franchise. With him, we wanted to take that risk because of the hockey sense and the fact that he’d won two championships already.”
What will become of Nick Schmaltz?
Nick Schmaltz posted a career high 39 assists and 61 points last season. He has obvious chemistry with newly named captain Clayton Keller. When the two are humming in that trademark high cycle in the offensive zone — and when they have an effective, space-creating center — they are difficult to defend.
Schmaltz’s curse is that he always leaves the viewer wanting more. His speed through the neutral zone is elite — top of the NHL elite — and he does it both ways although his back-tracking on pucks in that area of the ice is often overlooked.
Couple that with his obvious puck skills and you wonder if Schmaltz could elevate his play to the point-per game status that he teased in 2021-22 and 2022-23. At age 28, however, this just may be who Schmaltz is — an effective offensive forward who probably can help a team most if he does not have to play top-line minutes.
The question for Utah is how much longer they want to pin their hopes on Schmaltz. He has two seasons left on his contract, and there were offers for him at last season’s trade deadline. If Utah is not in a playoff position at the 2025 deadline, will they listen more intently to those offers, or will they wait until 2026 when he is 30 years old, on an expiring contract, and a couple of Utah’s young prospects are better prepared to take over?
What is the future André Tourigny and his coaching staff?
Rock solid. The Coyotes signed the staff to a three-year contract extension last summer that will keep them with the team through the 2026-27 season. Nothing has altered Armstrong’ faith in the coach whom he researched deeply before picking him above several other options.
“When we made a commitment to him by bringing him on board and then we unloaded the entire team to start the rebuild, we knew that he would come in, communicate, change the culture, relate to players, get players to be at their peak, but in the course of that rebuild, not leave a scar with how he handled them and then not be able move on to the next step with them,” Armstrong said.
“We had done a lot of homework on him and his ability to build relationships, get the most out of the player, but not leave that scar. And now I think we have a chance to take that next step because he has been as advertised.”
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How will the relationship between Tucson and Utah work?
It remains to be seen whether that relationship will exist beyond this season. The Smiths had too much else to manage this summer so they left the affiliation with Tucson and the Meruelo ownership group in place for 2024-25.
Suffice to say, working with your ex is not an ideal set-up. Nobody has said it publicly, but you have to wonder if Ryan Smith will bring his AHL affiliate closer to home next season, with arena options already in place. You also have to wonder if the Meruelos are planning to move their team to their new Reno Arena, whose ground-breaking is expected to take place in the spring of 2025. The Meruelos signed a three-year extension to remain Tucson, but contracts never meant much to the former Coyotes ownership group.
In the meantime, the travel between the AHL and NHL franchise just got a little tougher. When the Coyotes recalled players from Tucson, they could drive 90 minutes up the I-10 and be with the team. It’s a two-hour flight from Tucson to Salt Lake City (assuming the flight is on time, which is never a given these days). Recalls will require a little more planning.
How can fans watch UHC games — in and out of the Salt Lake City market?
Fans can choose from a dedicated streaming service, UtahHC+, or a free over-the-air broadcast on Utah 16. Seven Utah games will also be carried on national television.
As for fans in Arizona who have stuck with the team, here is a broadcast schedule for Utah games that will be carried on Channel 61 in the Valley.
And speaking of the Valley of the Sun, the Vegas Golden Knights and Scripps Sports announced a 55-game broadcast schedule for NHL fans in the Phoenix and Tucson markets on Arizona 61 and Arizona 58, respectively. Arizona’s NHL fans can also watch every Scripps Sports VGK broadcast through KnightTime+, the official streaming platform of the Vegas Golden Knights.
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What are Utah’s chances in the Central Division?
The general consensus among pundits is that Dallas and Colorado are the top teams; a pair of Cup contenders. Winnipeg finished second in the division last season with 110 points while Nashville added forwards Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei to a team that posted 99 points last season.
Barring injuries or major regressions, those are your top four teams, which leaves Utah fighting for the final wild card spot in the West.
So is Utah a playoff team?
With Edmonton, Vancouver, Vegas and Los Angeles in the Pacific, that final playoff spot mentioned above is already a tall order. Add to that list a pair of Central Division teams — the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues — and it will be tough for the UHC to qualify for the postseason. The Blues produced 92 points last season and Athletic beat writer Jeremy Rutherford thinks the team improved this offseason.
A more reasonable goal would be to remain in the playoff hunt in March and even April — an experience from which Utah can learn and grow.
“We’ve had a lot of transparency with trying to get our fans who are watching us for the first time to understand who we are as a team,” Armstrong said. “I think it’s important for them to understand that when you’re going into the fourth year of the rebuild after stripping it down, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Armstrong said the management staff did a deep analysis of teams at this stage of the rebuild and the numbers were not promising as far as the playoffs are concerned.
“For us, it’s about taking a step this year,” he said. “It’s about us becoming a better team and a more consistent team than we were last year. If we can just do that with the players we’ve added, our younger players getting a year older, and our best players taking another step and pushing us to play meaningful games late in the season, that, for us, is a win.”
Utah Roster
Here is the 23-man roster with which Utah will begin the 2024-25 season.
Forwards (14): Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton, Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Lawson Crouse, Alex Kerfoot, Matias Maccelli, Kevin Stenlund, Josh Doan, Kailer Yamamoto, Michael Carcone, Liam O’Brien.
Defensemen (7): Mikhail Sergachev, Sean Durzi, Juuso Välimäki, Michael Kesselring, Ian Cole, Robert Bortuzzo, Vladislav Kolyachonok.
Goalie (2): Connor Ingram, Karel Vejmelka.
IR: Nick Bjugstad, John Marino.
Top photo of the Utah Hockey Club via Getty Images
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