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What will the Utah Hockey Club look like in the 2026-27 season?
Pending the outcome of Seattle’s game with Anaheim, the Utah Hockey Club will reach American Thanksgiving either three or four points off the wild card pace in the Western Conference. Historically, that position has not been a good sign for teams hoping for a postseason spot.
As former NHL GM Ken Holland noted long ago, the first 20 games of the schedule are a good barometer of where teams will finish in the standings. And as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has researched on numerous occasions, about 80 percent of the teams that sit in a playoff spot on American Thanksgiving will make the playoffs.
Maybe that cold hard reality doesn’t sync with UHC fans’ expectations, but if you were paying attention this offseason, you would have seen GM Bill Armstrong raising caution flags when some pundits were predicting playoff games at Delta Center this spring. Long-term injuries to defensemen Sean Durzi and John Marino have not helped the cause, but this was probably not a playoff roster anyway.
That’s OK. Armstrong thinks Utah is “right where we should be,” and if his plan comes together, the 2026-27 season could be a memorable one in Salt Lake City.
Of course, the 2026-27 team won’t look much like the 2024-25 team. There will be numerous changes on the roster, and perhaps some changes at the higher levels of the organization. Just for fun, and with the holidays approaching, let’s take a look at what the Utah Hockey Club might look like in 2026-27.
Why that season? Because it’s the one the franchise has long been targeting for its emergence from the wilderness. That’s when many of the highly-touted prospects will be in the NHL. And now, thanks to happy coincidence, it’s when all of the UHC’s facilities will be completed, including the new practice facility (scheduled for completion in September), and the Delta Center renovations (scheduled for completion by the end of the summer in 2026).
(Getty Images)
Which Utah players will still be here?
If you look at the current Utah roster, only eight players are signed past the 2025-26 season. That is by design. Armstrong knows that he has a lot of prospects coming up through the pipeline who will need NHL opportunities. There will be more on the way in the next two drafts, and he also wants roster flexibility to make trades.
It’s a sure bet that center Logan Cooley and wing Dylan Guenther will be here. They are cornerstones of the franchise’s future. The same can be said for Clayton Keller, who is signed through 2027-28 after which he will be 30 years old.
Jack McBain will be a restricted free agent this summer. He has taken a major step forward this season with a team-high eight goals at 5-on-5. Given his size and cost control, Utah is certain to re-sign him.
Forward Matias Maccelli and center Barrett Hayton will be restricted free agents after the 2025-26 season. That sort of cost control, and Maccelli’s playmaking abilities make him likely to re-sign. Although Hayton has not produced at a level expected of a No. 5 overall pick (it’s not his fault the previous management and scouting staff reached for a player few had going that high), he is a helpful player for the middle six; especially on a team desperate for centers.
Forward Lawson Crouse will need to rekindle his 20-goal magic if he wants to remain in Utah for the final year of his contract (2026-27) and beyond. He has been ice cold offensively (three goals, four points), but coach André trusts him defensively and Crouse is still one of the leaders on this team as its associate captain.
Liam O’Brien is signed through 2026-27 so he’ll likely stick around on his cost-effective, 13th-forward contract.
On the blue line, Mikhail Sergachev is a key piece of the team’s future. Signed through 2030-31 at a cap hit of $8.5 million, Serghachev is being counted on to become a No. 1 defenseman. His points production (15, tied for 13th among NHL defensemen) level is starting to meet those expectations, he is logging an average of 25:44 of ice time per night (second in the NHL) and he is regularly facing the toughest matchups. Even better, his contract will look cheap in a couple years and Utah should have space to add another top-end piece to its blue line if it needs one.
Sergachev might be faring even better on the offensive end if he had a top-pair worthy partner. John Marino hasn’t played all season due to lower back surgery and he likely will not play until after the 4 Nations break in late February. That said, Marino is signed through 2026-27 and could be a valuable piece beyond that if he gets healthy and recovers his former level of play.
Sean Durzi is signed through 2027-28 and is a key piece whose absence has really been felt since he went down with what could be a season-ending shoulder injury. Michael Kesselring has taken great strides the past two seasons. He’ll be an RFA after the 2025-26 season and is likely to re-sign if he stays on his current path.
Which prospects could be here?
Start with a pair of prospects who are playing in the second best league in the world right now: 2023 first-round picks Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But. Both of their KHL contracts will expire when the Gagarin Cup Playoffs have concluded in May.
Simashev could be here as soon as next season. Given his precocious defensive play, his skating ability, and his long reach, he looks like a perfect match for Sergachev on the top pair at some point early in his career. But may take a little longer to develop (maybe a year in the AHL), but the big power forward has all the tools that Armstrong loves, including a nasty streak and a willingness to attack the hard areas of the ice (in the corners, along the walls and in front of the of the net).
Even if defenseman Maveric Lamoureux goes back to Tucson at some point this season, he is another cornerstone piece of the future blue line. Speaking of Tucson, forward Josh Doan is knocking on the door of a permanent NHL role. A little more seasoning in the AHL should do the trick.
Keep an eye on Utah prospects Maksymilian Szuber (a defensive-minded defenseman with off-the-charts hockey IQ) and Artem Duda, a smooth skating puck mover with lots of upside.
Up front, 2024 first-round pick Tij Iginla is a good bet to be with Utah by then if he stays on his current trajectory. Iginla has 13 goals and 26 points in 18 WHL games with Kelowna.
Utah’s other forward prospects are less certain. Where forwards Cole Beaudoin, Julian Lutz, Miko Matikka, Sam Lipkin, Ben McCartney and Aku Räty end up playing will depend on their development over the next season and three quarters.
Who won’t be here?
Nothing is certain, but when looking at the roster, there are several players whose careers in Utah appear to be nearing an end. Forward Nick Schmaltz has had rotten puck luck this season. He is fourth on the team in shots on goal, but he hasn’t found the back of the net (he leads the team in assists with 17).
More importantly, Schmaltz’s contract expires after next season when he will be 30 years old. Unless Schmaltz is willing to accept a discount, it’s hard to imagine Utah paying a player on the wrong side of 30 that could eat up valuable cap space as the team comes of age and is ready to make a playoff push.
Center Kevin Stenlund signed a two-year contract in the offseason, after which he will be a UFA. He’s valuable on the PK, in the faceoff dot, and as a fourth-line center. His future will come down to his play over the next season and three-quarters, and the price that he is seeking in free agency.
Forwards Alex Kerfoot and Nick Bjugstad will both be UFAs after this season. Even if they sign for one more year, the likeable and useful 30-somethings are not part of the franchise’s future.
Michael Carcone will be a UFA after this season. If Utah hasn’t traded him by then, he will be headed elsewhere. His camp has been trying to get that done this season, but Utah likes the depth he adds up front — for now.
Defensemen Ian Cole, Robert Bortuzzo and Olli Määttä will all be UFAs after the season. It’s hard to imagine more than one of them returning with Marino and Durzi back and a pair of prospects pushing for time. All three will likely be gone by 2026-27.
It will be interesting to see what happens with defensemen Juuso Välimäki and Vladislav Kolyachonok. Välimäki will be a UFA after the 2025-26 season. His average ice time per game has already fallen behind Kesselring’s to sixth among the team’s defensemen at 17 minutes. He could be a valuable depth piece at the right price, or he could be moving on.
Kolyachonok will be an RFA after the 2025-26 season and offers depth on a cost-controlled contract, but he has fallen out of favor recently. He played his first game in three weeks on Sunday in Toronto, but he logged just 12:25 of ice time.
Even more interesting than Kolyachonok is the Utah goalie situation. Red-hot Karel Vejmelka will be a UFA after this season; Connor Ingram will be a UFA after 2025-26. Will Utah sign one to a short-term contract to fill the gap between now and when their prospects are ready? Will they re-sign both to short-term deals?
None of their top three goalie prospects — Michael Hrabal, Melker Thelin and Carsen Musser — is ready for pro hockey although further evaluation on that front will take place over the remainder of this season. None of the franchise’s AHL/ECHL goalies is signed past 2025-26 so there is opportunity for one of the prospects to grab a spot in Tucson.
Coaching/management
The Coyotes hired André Tourigny as coach on July 1, 2021. He is already the fifth-longest tenured coach in the NHL. That should tell you all you need to know about NHL coaches’ job security.
The Coyotes hired Bill Armstrong as GM on Sept. 17, 2020. He is the 15th longest tenured GM in the league. That tells you that the latter job is not quite as volatile as the former job, but it is by no means secure.
The franchise is no longer in Arizona and neither owner Ryan Smith nor his hand-picked president of hockey operations, Chris Armstrong, hired this GM-coach duo. If the team does not match the owner’s and president’s expectations — real or perceived — history tells us there could be changes.
That said, the future of this franchise looks bright. The blue line appears set for the future, there are plenty of goaltending prospects in the oven, and some of the forward prospects are already panning out in pro hockey. If Utah can add another top-six center via the draft, a trade or free agency, it may have the pieces to do some damage in a couple years.
Top photo of Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley and Matias Maccelli via Getty Images
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