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Neutral Zone: Utah Hockey Club is 'right where we're supposed to be'
The Utah Hockey Club‘s 3-0 start energized its fan base and helped the team secure an early foothold in its new market. That start also created unrealistic expectations for a young team that is still growing while playing without two key defensemen due to injuries.
In its past nine games, Utah is 2-4-3 as it moves into the second leg of a brutal road trip with a game Tuesday in Winnipeg against the NHL-leading Jets (11-1). Fantasy has given way to reality, but that reality is just fine with coach André Tourigny.
“If you would have told me that [defensemen John] Marino and [Sean] Durzi would barely play this season and after 12 games we’re above .500, I would have said, ‘OK, that’s pretty good,'” Tourigny said.
“What I like is we’re growing in our decision making; in our game management. If you look at our last game in Vegas, normally for us to win, we need to have really good execution with the puck. Without having our execution, we managed the game really well. We got in the blue paint to score a big goal. We stayed out of the box. We were above them all night and we closed the slot pretty good. All of those things gave us a chance to win that game and we still got a point. That was a step in the right direction for us.”
Always one to take the long view, Utah GM Bill Armstrong said the schedule in November and December will be a proving ground for his young team.
“If you look at the quality of teams we’re going to play, it’s going to make or break us,” he said. “We’re either going to keep pace and fight for every point that we get, or we’re going to fade away. Our division — our whole conference is just tough. It’s on every night so we’ve got to be sharp. We’ve got to make sure we’re not giving away points and finding ways to win.”
That said, Armstrong said Utah is about where he expected it to be when the season began.
“We’re coming out of the rebuild and now we’re getting into some territory where you see some flashes of brilliance and then some flashes of immaturity,” he said. “You have to be patient in those times. I think that’s one of Bear’s strongest points as a coach is that he teaches through those moments and we get better.
“Those moments are going to happen when you’re the [fourth] youngest team. Look at the game in Vegas. They’re fully developed in their maturity, in their age, in their D-men. I don’t know who the youngest player on their team is, but I looked out on the ice for us at times and you’ve got Lamoureux, Cooley, Guenther and Keller is your oldest guy. You have to always keep that in perspective. It’s not an excuse but at the same time when you have young, talented players, they’re going to grow at a certain rate, and they’ve got to go through some learning experiences to toughen up and produce more of a winning way.”
MavLam’s moment
Utah defenseman Maveric Lamoureux wasn’t supposed to be in the NHL this early. He was supposed to play the majority of his first pro season in the AHL. He was supposed to play heavy minutes in all situations, away from the proving ground of the world’s top league.
“We like to groom our players through the American League and give them a little pro experience and then the next thing you know, he’s up in the NHL,” Armstrong said. “That happened a little bit with JJ Moser, too. With our injuries and how well he played down there, he just played himself into that hole and he’ll continue to stay there for the time being.”
Lamoureux is averaging 17:48 of ice time, sixth among Utah’s active defensemen. The team is clearly being careful with his matchups, but he is taking 56.5 percent of his faceoffs in the defensive zone and he has been on the positive side of the ledger in his small sample of underlying numbers, including possession and expected goals.
“After he scored his first goal, I was thinking, ‘OK, great goal. Great play at a key moment for us, but how will he be on the next shift?'” Tourigny said. “Well, he did not change his game. He did not get carried away with emotion. He just stayed with it.”
“It’s been a pleasant surprise,” Armstrong added. “I love his size, his skating ability, he can move a puck. He’s adapted real well and he’s been a strong point for our club just because he adds that element of physicality plus the long stick.”
Just as it was with Dylan Guenther last season — albeit with a lot more NHL and pro experience under Guenther’s belt — Lamoureux will decide how long his maiden NHL voyage lasts.
“You can be in election mode for 21 days, but then after that, you are who you are,” Tourigny said, laughing. “We’ll see about him when the dust settles and we have a better picture.
“There’s no reason for me to say something will change right now. We’re giving him the opportunity right now. We’re working with him, making sure he’s progressing. He asks a lot of good questions and we’re heading in the right direction, but the most important thing is to stay humble and be urgent every day. That has to be his approach and so far, he’s been that way.”
Understanding Michael Carcone’s situation
Recent reports have suggested that Utah is working to trade forward Michael Carcone. That’s not an accurate portrayal of the situation.
Would Carcone like to find a home where he can become a regular in the lineup? Of course he would. He has only played three games for Utah this season; his last one coming on Oct. 16 in Anaheim. A lot of third- and fourth-line NHL players would like to find a better situation than the one they’re in.
But this is not a case of the Utah coaching staff choosing Liam O’Brien over Carcone. O’Brien has also played in just three games, entering a matchup with the Jets on Tuesday.
Of late, Tourigny has reverted to an approach with Utah that he used often in Arizona. He is dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, allowing him to manage the minutes of defensemen Michael Kesselring, Ian Cole and Juuso Välimäki in order to maximize their potential.
That said, the team is an injury away from having to replace a forward in the lineup. Carcone brings skill and Carcone can score so he is a valuable depth piece for the team that it cannot send to Tucson of the American Hockey League because Carcone is not waivers exempt and would likely be claimed by another team.
The word is out that Carcone would like to find a new home so Utah is certainly fielding calls, but until those offers present what the team feels is requisite value — a tough ask for a player who is not in the lineup — there will be no trade. Utah is happy to keep Carcone as an insurance policy that it will no doubt have to exercise at some point this season.
Reality sets in for Kailer Yamamoto
This wasn’t how Kailer Yamamoto envisioned the 2024-25 season progressing after he signed a one-year, two-way contract with Utah for the league minimum of $775,000.
There was always the possibility that Utah would re-assign him to Tucson because he was one of just four forwards on the roster (along with Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Josh Doan) who was waivers exempt.
But since arriving in Tucson after the long drive from Salt Lake City, Yamamoto has appeared in just one game for the Roadrunners: Oct. 29 at Abbotsford.
Per the AHL’s veteran rule, of the 18 skaters (not counting goalies) that teams may dress for a game, at least 13 must be qualified as “development players.” Of those 13, 12 must have played in 260 or fewer professional games (including AHL, NHL and European elite leagues), and one must have played in 320 or fewer professional games.
That has left Yamamoto out in the cold.
“We’re trying to keep the lines from being blurry,” Tucson coach Steve Potvin said. “We don’t want to get into a position where we’re just rotating the players. I just feel like when you do that, guys are just punching their card in and out and just waiting for their turn to play or to leave work.
“We want our behavior, our attitude, our compete level to be right. We want it to matter. If you just get into a rotation, then it just kind of gets to a point where you lose that little bit of competitiveness and that reason to behave a certain way.”
Potvin understands how frustrating the situation is for Yamamoto.
“We want to give him a chance to have success and it’s maybe a little unfair to him to expect him to come in and have instant success and play where your feet are,” Potvin said. “It’s a harder thing than people can imagine. You’ve been in the NHL for a long time. You have expectations of playing in the NHL. You’re signed and you’re hoping to fulfill a role that Utah would like you to fill.
“It can be difficult and it can take some time. It can wear on your ego, but you need to get both feet in Tucson, get yourself entrenched in the team, go to battle with the guys — even in practice —and build relationships. That’s when I think you have a real chance of success.”
Potvin expects Yamamoto to reach that point.
“He’s an elite person,” the coach said. “You can’t play in the NHL that long and not have elite qualities. Once he gets his mind wrapped around everything here, he’s going to be a player that’s hard to play against. He’s a smart player. He’s a smart person so we expect that he’ll do what he can to help the team, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure he has an opportunity for success.”
Winnipeg attendance woes
The Winnipeg Jets, Tuesday’s Utah opponent, are averaging the second lowest home attendance in the NHL this season at 13,800 after six games at Canada Life Centre. Unlike Utah, which sits in last place at 11,131, the Jets do not have the built-in excuse of obstructed-view seats.
Last February in an interview with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, Jets chairman Mark Chipman sounded the alarm when addressing the franchise’s declining season-ticket base.
“I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say, ‘We’ve got to get back to 13,000,’” Chipman said. “This place we find ourselves in right now, it’s not going to work over the long haul. It just isn’t.”
Winnipeg’s season-ticket base has suffered a 27 percent decline in just three years, falling from approximately 13,000 to just under 9,500, according to the team. Nobody is talking about relocating the Jets a second time. Not yet, anyway, but this is a storyline that bears watching with NHL expansion also on the horizon.
Top photo of Utah Hockey Club via Getty Images
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