Utah Hockey Club monthly mailbag: You asked, I tried to answer all of your questions

Hey, Utah Hockey Club fans. How are you feeling about your brand new team as it hits the 20-game game mark — roughly a quarter of the season — on Saturday in Pittsburgh?

The vibes from that electric opener at Delta Center are gone. The momentum from that 3-0 start with 16 goals are gone. John Marino hasn’t played a game. Sean Durzi has only played four. Connor Ingram is out of the lineup and the team is just 4-9-3 with 33 goals scored in its past 16 games.

Welcome to the rebuild, a process that GM Bill Armstrong began in earnest before the 2021-22 season when he stripped the roster and the hockey operations departments to the studs in an effort to build sustainable success.

Armstrong has been remarkably transparent about how slow and painful this process can be. He didn’t expect this team to make the playoffs this season despite some egregiously aggressive predictions by national media. There are still significant holes in this lineup that must be filled. There is still significant youth in this lineup that must mature. And yes, there are key injuries that are making both success and evaluation a difficult process.

We can discuss all of those things and more in the months ahead, but right now, it’s time for you to sound off. Let’s get to your questions — all 34 of them — in the first edition of ALLCITY Network’s All Utah Hockey monthly mailbag.

---

Utah questions from X (26)

I asked Utah coach André Tourigny. It’s a matter of health and fielding the lineup he feels gives them the best chance to win.

“We have a deeper team,” he said. “We have guys who have climbed the ranks and we haven’t had one injury up front. That was unexpected. Even if we don’t want it, we all expect it at some point. Bumps and bruises are part of part of the game so that will happen. We’ll need Obi. When the time is right, Obi will be a big part of this.”

Keep in mind that Tourigny and O’Brien have a longstanding relationship that goes back to their time together in juniors. You can bet that the communication and expectations between the two has been clear from the get-go. That’s Tourigny’s style anyway, but it goes double for a player he knows will react the right way to whatever situation the coach throws at him.

Ha! I think the Doan family would cast the same vote. And if it’s skill you’re looking for in a captain, well, let’s just say that Gudas has “a very particular set of skills.”

I think you are correct. Coaches and players will always believe they can make the playoffs, but I don’t think all of those national pundits predicting a playoff berth for Utah helped matters in a new market that hadn’t been along for the rebuild ride to fully understand the process. Ever since he stripped this roster down, Armstrong has been transparent about the rebuild process in everything from its expected timeline to the victories and setbacks it will present along the way.

I think Utah fans may have had an unrealistic picture of how good this team is right now. It was not a playoff team when the season began, and it certainly is not now.

Let’s take a look at some of the factors holding Utah back. It does not have a No. 1 center. Logan Cooley may be that guy one day, but I think Cooley needs a bigger, skilled, top-six center to complement him in this lineup and take some of the defensive attention away from him. When you have that guy at the top of the lineup, the other players can slot into their proper roles rather than assuming roles for which they are not suited. It filters down through the entire forward group.

Utah is playing without two of its top three defenseman with John Marino and Sean Durzi out of the lineup. That impacts so much, from defensive zone play to breakouts (they are two of the best puck movers on the team), neutral zone play, offensive zone play and the special teams.

Utah ranks 26th in total cap hit and even lower in actual salary spent on existing players when you remove the $7.86 million Shea Weber contract from the equation as well as the $2.253 million in buyout money for Patrik Nemeth, Zack Kassian and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. That means they don’t have the depth that other teams enjoy to replace their injured players.

With all of that said, I do think Utah should be better than what we’ve seen, but it is far too early to suggest that changes should be made to a coaching staff that up until this season had done everything asked of it and more for a team whose opening-night roster was the fourth-youngest in the NHL. GMs can’t make rash or emotional decisions like fans want them to do. Sixteen games does not unmake all of the good that Tourigny and his staff have done in previous seasons.

Thank you for asking the important questions, Michael. It seems nobody has been manning the store while I am otherwise occupied. Just this week, I saw this culinary abomination taken to another level.

Mayonnaise? MAYONNAISE?

The apocalypse is at hand.

Of Utah’s top three prospects in the pipeline, none is ready for North American pro hockey. All three were drafted in 2023 and goalies historically require the longest development path of any player for a variety of reasons.

Top prospect Michael Hrabal is in his second season at UMass (Hockey East). No. 2 prospect Melker Thelin is still playing in Sweden for Björklöven in Allsvenskan, the nation’s second-highest league. No. 3 prospect Carsen Musser is in his first season with Colorado College (NCHC).

Even Rasmus Korhonen (Västeräs, Allsvenskan) and Anson Thornton (Allen, ECHL) need more time. That gives Utah’s current goalies time to lock up another contract.

Karel Vejmelka is in the final season of his contract with Utah and would do well to keep up his current hot streak if he wants to remain with the team behind this season. Connor Ingram’s contract expires after the 2025-26 season.

It’s impossible to predict the pace of each prospect’s development, but it’s fair to say that even in a best-case scenario, they are a few years away from NHL ready. Whether Utah decides to stick with the Vejmelka/Ingram tandem past their current deals will depend on that duo’s play.

Partly because they don’t feel they have any solutions down there. Just because Egor Sokolov has eight goals in the American Hockey League does not mean it will translate to the NHL. The NHL plays at a much faster pace with less space and time because its players are faster and more skilled on both sides of the puck.

This is not to say that Sokolov won’t bloom into an NHL player at some point (although time is running out for the 24-year-old), but there is constant communication between the Tucson staff, the development staff and the Utah staff about which players might help the NHL club.

Other than Josh Doan, Utah’s top prospects in the AHL are defensemen. There are no Conor Geekies lurking.

There is also the issue of contracts. If they bring Sokolov up, who goes down? Utah has two forwards who are waivers exempt: Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther. Obviously, neither of those players is going down. Anybody else would have to pass through waivers and would likely be claimed.

I leaned on my colleague, former NHL coach Steve Peters, for thoughts on this one.

Here’s Petey’s take: “I don’t know any coaches that have an offensive zone system that doesn’t want players to get to the net, so I don’t think it is system related.

“Timidness? Absolutely! It takes guts to get to the front of the net and take a stick in the back from a big defenseman, or stare down a slapshot from your own defenseman. That’s the hardest area on the ice to go.

“Personnel? That definitely plays into it. There are players that are known as perimeter players; who spend most of their time from the dot line to the boards. It’s just where they play. It’s what they know and it’s what they’re comfortable with. The trick for a coaching staff is to get those players to try to find their way to the front of the net.”

By the way, I also asked Tourigny. He also acknowledged the need for the players to get to the net. The coaching staff has been preaching it, but it warrants mentioning that Utah is 12th in the league in screenshots so they are creating some traffic.

I felt that way earlier this season, but in these last few games, it feels like progress has stagnated.

As I mentioned above, it is difficult to evaluate Utah without John Marino and Sean Durzi in the lineup. Both players would help get pucks out of the defensive zone more quickly, thereby igniting the team’s transition game and allowing the UHC to play faster. They’d also help in the offensive zone and Durzi would help Utah’s struggling power play.

But when I look at the seasons of Logan Cooley, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, Alex Kerfoot, Matias Maccelli and Connor Ingram and others, I think there is more to give and I think those players would agree. I hesitate to make sweeping judgments 19 games into the season, but something has to change soon or the stated goal of playing meaningful games near the end of the season will be lost.

I’ll go with worms for toes. It would help me garden without having to bend over. Worms are excellent for distributing nutrients more efficiently, breaking up compact soil and then aerating it.

The only problem I foresee is hungry birds. Fortunately, most worms can regrow their tails if they are amputated (or eaten), and many earthworms can lose several segments from their head end and they will grow back.

😬

I actually asked KSL’s Ryan Miller because he covered this story closely. Here’s what he told me regarding building another arena vs. renovating Delta Center.

“There were some discussions [about building a new arena]. I don’t think they ever got to a real serious stage. The government people I talked to always felt it was just a threat. There was some fear the Smiths would move the Jazz from downtown and build one, and that essentially resulted in the legislature funding the downtown project.

“That all happened before the Coyotes move, too. It was in anticipation of a potential NHL team. The legislative session that approved the downtown project was in February.”

As I said above, I still think Maveric Lamoureux will head back to Tucson at some point because I still think that’s what’s best for the long-term development of the player, and by extension, the long-term success of the team. That said, he may have been their best defenseman against Boston.

To me, this really comes down to one question: Are you more concerned with the here and now, or with the future?

I agree that not playing Kolyachonok isn’t helping. It has been three weeks. That’s a long time for a 23-year-old defenseman to sit out, but Tourigny said he is going with the lineup that he feels gives the team the best chance to win. Right now, Utah’s lineup does not include Kolyachonok.

Unfortunately, for Kolyachonok, he is not waivers exempt so the team does not want to risk exposing him to other teams.

The first part of your question is one for which I don’t have an answer, but it definitely bears watching over the next two months. Logan Cooley, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, Alex Kerfoot, Matias Maccelli and Connor Ingram all have more to give Utah.

As for waiving Ingram, that’s an absolute no. He would be claimed off waivers and they would be in a situation where they didn’t have two NHL-caliber goalies. He does need to recapture his mojo. Maybe the injury will afford him that opportunity.

Yes, both had injuries that kept them out at the start of the season.

This team would need to keep playing this way for a long stretch; maybe the next two months. GM Bill Armstrong has told me he likes the relationships that Tourigny has forged with his players, he likes his teaching ability, and he understands that Year 4 of a complete rebuild should not carry the expectations that some national pundits put on this team. He has plenty of historical data to back that assertion.

There are plenty of holes in Utah’s lineup, this is one of the youngest teams in the NHL, and again, they are playing without two of their top three defensemen.

Probably not again until the new year. I was there for the opener but I also cover the Arizona Cardinals and they have a good chance to make the playoffs. The NFL consumes a lot of my time.

I put these together because they basically ask the same question.

Two names jump out on the good side: Karel Vejmelka and Dylan Guenther. I know Guenther has cooled of late, but that’s to be expected from a young player playing his first full NHL season. I think Guenther is the purest goal scorer this franchise has had since Radim Vrbata, or maybe even Keith Tkachuk.

Vejmelka is playing well in a contract year. He was 11th in the NHL in goals saved above expected at 7.29 as of Friday, per Evolving-Hockey, despite appearing in just eight games. Consistency has been his biggest challenge, but he has an opportunity to earn another contract from Utah.

On the disappointing side, there are plenty of names that I listed above. Logan Cooley, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, Alex Kerfoot, Matias Maccelli, Michael Carcone and Connor Ingram all need to up their offensive games.

As for off the ice, I don’t know if it’s fair to call it a surprise, but I can tell you Utah’s players, coaches and staff are thrilled with how ownership has treated them. That’s a big switch from the past.

You mean the mailbag logo? If so, credit ALLCITY’s Emma Clark.

I still think Maveric Lamoureux will head back to Tucson at some point because I still think that’s what’s best for the long-term development of the player, and by extension, the long-term success of the team. So I am including him in this group.

The other players to keep an eye are the two, 19-year-old prospects in the KHL with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv who will turn 20 in February: Defenseman Dmitri Simashev and forward Daniil But. I could see Simashev making the lineup next season; even pairing with Mikhail Sergachev at some point. We’ll see about But, but a big, power-forward who goes to the hard areas feels like a guy who could fill a desperate need.

I don’t think Tij Iginla will be ready at such a young age, but the other obvious guy to watch is Josh Doan, who is on the cusp of being a regular NHL player.

Haha! That ship has sailed, my friend.

And I thought I was going to make it through my first mailbag with an arena question.

Your sarcasm is adorable. With three goals and four points, it’s clear that he needs to make an impact on the offensive side of the puck like a lot of other players. Crouse is a guy this team counts on for 20-plus goals per season. He has a lot of work to do on that front.

He is already making an impact on the defensive side of the puck. He regularly faces the toughest matchups and the team’s defensive metrics are almost all up from last year; a fact that is hidden by subpar goaltending from Ingram this season.

Maybe focus on more of the game than just what happens in the offensive zone?

Has anyone ever told you that you are crazy, Janey?

Utah questions from Discord (5)

I’ll be blunt. It has been difficult. It is hard enough to cover an NFL team but balancing that with covering an out-of-state NHL team is a juggling act that involves really long hours, seven days a week.

I don’t get to talk to the players nearly as much as I used to and that makes it tough to be as dialed in as I’d like to be. The Utah media relations staff has been amazing with granting phone interviews, and I do talk to the management, coaching and development staffs frequently, but the distance has definitely altered the way in which I can write/talk about this team.

I don’t know if Utah’s players are happy to hear from me, but they at least pretend to be.

Here’s what I have heard about the situation. They are getting tremendous support on the broadcast side. They have the resources — stats service subscriptions, lots of cameras, broadcast support elements — to do their job. There is even a wire cam at Delta Center that runs the length of the ice. They also have a studio. They never had that in Arizona. 

I have had coaches in the past tell me that the personnel is not good enough to produce at a respectable clip. As for the struggles of the power play, I suggest you watch this video from our Steve Peters in which he discusses the Utah power play after some other topics.

Notice how he highlights missing the net. Coach André Tourigny highlighted the same thing. Utah is among the league’s top 10 teams in shot attempts and it is 12th in the NHL in screenshots. Guys are missing the net at an alarming rate and Tourigny called that a matter of “mental toughness and focus.”

I’m not sure what you are looking for. GM Brad Treliving said it is not a cause for concern and I will take him at his word until we know otherwise. I fully support players (humans) seeking medical advice wherever they deem best. It’s their body. They get to decide.

“We haven’t been trying to be cryptic with all this stuff,” Treliving said. “We’ve been calling him day to day because that’s what he’s been. We’ve looked at the schedule here and what we are trying to do is use this week and hopefully get this thing behind him.”

That’s a lengthy answer and I can’t say I have asked all of the significant others how they feel about it, but the short version is that they have all adapted pretty well. They know the area, they have their housing settled, and they know the local spots to shop and eat.

As for the snow and cold, that’s just arriving but many of these guys grew up in similar climates so I doubt it’s a real shock to the system. It’s also sunny in Salk Lake City a lot, and when the mountains are dusted with snow, the backdrop to that city is beautiful.

Utah questions from Facebook (3)

I am giving you the same answer I provided above:

I asked coach André Tourigny.

“We have a deeper team,” he said. “We have guys who have climbed the ranks and we haven’t had one injury up front. That was unexpected. Even if we don’t want it, we all expect it at some point. Bumps and bruises are part of part of the game, so that will happen. We’ll need Obi. When the time is right, Obi will be a big part of this.”

Keep in mind that Tourigny and O’Brien have a longstanding relationship that goes back to their time together in juniors. You can bet that the communication and expectations between the two has been clear from the get-go. That’s Tourigny’s style anyway, but it goes double for a player he knows will react the right way to whatever situation the coach throws at him.

Tucson: Josh Doan, Julian Lutz, Miko Matikka, Sam Lipkin, Andrew Agozzino, Travis Barron, Kailer Yamamoto, Curtis Douglas, Egor Sokolov, Ben McCartney, Miloš Kelemen (for now), Artem Duda, Maksymilian Szuber, Montana Onyebuchi, Kevin Connauton, Patrik Koch, Matt Villalta, Jaxson Stauber (currently with the NHL club). The rest of the players are on AHL-only contracts.

Allen: Anson Thornton.

It is typical for NHL teams to use the ECHL to find playing time for a goaltending prospect. Bill Armstrong does not believe in the value of an ECHL team for much more than that.

If that happens this season, Utah will have to make a roster move. Right now, the only defenseman who is waivers exempt and eligible to report to Tucson without the threat of being claimed by another team is Maveric Lamoureux.

If both players come back, that would put nine defensemen on Utah’s roster. Utah would have to waive or trade at least one of them. My guess would be either veteran Robert Bortuzzo or veteran Olli Määttä. That said, I think there’s a chance that we won’t see Durzi the rest of the season and we’ll see how Marino’s recovery goes. Back surgery is tricky.

Bortuzzo, Määttä and Cole will all be UFAs next season. With Simashev possibly joining the team and Lamoureux perhaps being ready for a full-time role, it’s hard to envision any of those players with Utah next season.

Top illustration via Emma Clark, ALLCITY Network

Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter