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Getting to know U-tah: Forward Clayton Keller
From now through training camp, ALLCITY Network will publish profiles of players and staff on the Utah Hockey Club’s hockey operations side to help Utah fans get to know their new team before the first puck drop on Oct. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center.
Clayton Keller
Position: Wing
Height/weight: 5-10, 174
Shoots: Left
Age: 26
2023-24 stats: 78 games, 33 goals, 76 points
Career stats: 520 games, 166 goals, 418 points
Contract status: Signed through 2027-28 season (AAV $7.15M)
Agent: Scott Bartlett
Dog: Lucky
Hobbies: Golfing, chewing on his mouth guard
(Getty Images)
Those silly Clayton Keller rumors are starting again; probably originated at some fan-boy site in Toronto.
Let’s put that gossip to bed. Keller does not want to be traded. Keller is not miffed about the team’s relocation to Salt Lake City. Sure, he loved living in Arizona like many former and current NHL players do. Sure, he has a home in Arizona that he intends to keep. Who wouldn’t want to keep this home — especially when you consider that Keller’s second greatest sporting passion is the game of golf and he doesn’t mind golfing in Arizona’s summer heat, allowing him to play year round?
But the idea that he is unhappy about being in Utah?
“That’s 100 percent bullshit,” his dad, Bryan, said. “After the reception they received and the way the entire state is behind the NHL being there, he can’t wait for next season! He wouldn’t be purchasing a house if he wanted out! You can quote me on that!”
We did, and Clayton backed his dad’s assessment.
“It’s a new challenge,” he said. “It’s a brand new franchise. It’s a fan base that’s super pumped for hockey. It really excites all of us.”
Keller was still in Arizona when ALLCITY Network spoke to him by phone. In fact, he spent most of the summer there, barely taking any vacation time.
He was golfing the North Valley’s premier courses as he does many mornings during the offseason, and sometimes on off days during the season. He was skating at the Ice Den Scottsdale and Mullett Arena as he does every summer with Arizona NHL products Auston Matthews, Tage Thompson and a number of Utah teammates.
ALLCity Networks’ Steve Peters even caught up with him for a quick check-in while he was skating.
“We were skating three or four times a week, just getting our games back,” said Keller, who planned to head to Salt Lake City this week. “I don’t like to be away from the game for that long. I like to feel fresh. I think that’s really how you get better is when you’re working on your game, when you have more time to talk about things and analyze them.
“Every summer, I’m evolving and I think you have to if you want to keep improving. This summer, I had a plan set out. The skills guy I work with came down and we worked a lot on a few different things, whether it’s backhand passing, or different fakes or different angles to shooting. Brian Slugocki was part of it, too. He skated with me a lot this summer. That’s what I love doing so much. I think it always pays off. When you put the work in, the results will come.”
Former Coyotes coach and current Canucks coach Rick Tocchet used to call Keller “a hockey nerd” because he eats, drinks and sleeps the game. That nerdiness was on display this summer when Arizona’s NHL boys set up an iPad on a stand at the local rinks to record their informal practices.
“Whether it’s passing or picking up rims off the wall or working on your one-timer, you’re able to watch it during the skate and then we’d kind of dive into it after as well,” he said. “Once you see it, I think it helps you even more when you skate the next time with the same guys.”
Keller watched Utah’s moves this summer with great interest. He’s excited about the continued infusion of top-end prospects such as Tij Iginla. He’s excited about the potential growth in the games of Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Josh Doan. He loves the rebuilt blue line that added John Marino, Ian Cole and No. 1 D-man-to-be Mikhail Sergachev to the mix.
“All the guys that we traded for and signed are great players and guys that have won Stanley Cups or been in those high pressure situations,” he said. “I think that’s only gonna help our group and push us in the right direction. We’re at a time now where we really are taking that next step and we want to win. We have a lot of skill and a lot of speed, and I think we’re a fun team to watch.”
Keller is ready to push the team up that next step as a player and as an increasingly vocal leader on the bench.
“I’ve always been a super motivated guy and I think the way that I carry myself — not just only at the rink, but away from the rink with my preparation, how I take care of my body — things like that help set an example,” he said. “I’m not the most vocal guy, but I want to push every single day in practice. I want to lead the guys in that way, and yeah, I’m definitely in some guys’ ears (laughs), I guess during the game, but it’s because I love them and I want the best for them just as much as I do for me.
“Every team has different leaders. Guys do it in different ways. I think we have a good balance of that where when it needs to be intense we have it, or when guys need to just kind of chill a little bit we have that, too.”
More than anything, Keller wants a longer taste of the playoffs than he got in the Coyotes’ cameo appearance in the 2020 playoff bubble — to date, his only postseason appearance.
“You look at all those years when Chicago was so good, I loved watching them,” he said. “When the pressure was on, they always showed up and they shoved it up everyone’s ass. They were just so fun to watch and you just knew they were gonna win or pull it out.
“I’ve had some decent seasons, but I haven’t proven anything really. Where you really make the noise is in the playoffs; when you’re in those high pressure situations. It was just super cool to see [Florida’s] Matthew Tkachuk (a good friend of Keller’s) win this year. Just seeing the performance he put on the last two playoffs is unbelievable and definitely motivating.”
Keller has embraced the truth that his own performance will play a major role in what Utah is able to achieve this season and beyond.
“I still have another level that I can get to and I know I can get to it and I will because of how I work and how much better my mindset has gotten throughout the years,” he said. “Before, I would let my emotions get in the way, but I have really put in work on that side of things; really believing in myself and having that strong mindset.
“I think that’s what makes all the best players in every sport is the mind. I can’t get wait to get the season started.”
Related Keller links
Inside the rise of Clayton Keller to bona fide NHL superstar: ‘It’s an obsession with the game’
Family matters: It took an entire family’s efforts to elevate Clayton Keller
Shattered glass, NHL dreams: Clayton Keller’s boyhood home a vivid reminder of the goal ahead
Top photo via Getty Images: Clayton Keller gets a laugh out of teammates and staff as the team is introduced to fans at the Delta Center on April 24 in Salt Lake City.
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