The Utah HC general manager previewed prospect camp and recapped an eventful NHL draft for the team.
The NHL Draft may have changed the outlook of the Utah Hockey Club, but it hasn’t changed what general manager Bill Armstrong wants to see out of his team this season.
Speaking to reporters Sunday at Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake, Armstrong spoke about the need for consistency with his young team.
“We want to play meaningful games; we want to be in the hunt down the stretch,” he said. “When we lose three games in a row, I want to be able to bounce back.”
He also referenced his time in St. Louis as assistant to Doug Armstrong, where he learned patience — so often preached this off-season — as part of the rebuild.
He also discussed the pain of losing to Chicago and Los Angeles seemingly every year, calling those moments “good scars”.
“It took a while for us to be good,” Armstrong recalled. “We had good players, but not great NHL players.”
It’s that kind of patience to develop great NHL players that has united the front office.
“We’ve grown a lot; (Ryan and Ashley Smith) have taken all excuses out of the game,” he said. “They’ve given us the resources we need to go make this team better.”
Case in point — the acquisitions of Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino, which has beefed up the blue line with two new potential top-six defenders.
“Ryan (and Ashley) are great owners; they have the knowledge,” Armstrong said. “It’s felt like we’ve done business for 20 years together. We’ve clearly gotten off the ground and taken a step.”