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Utah Jazzed - Sept. 9, 2024 – Vol. 78, Issue 02 - Ryan Kennedy

The 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas was a lot of things for a lot of different groups. For the San Jose Sharks, it was the opportunity to cement a No. 1 center of the future in first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini. For the NHL, it was the chance to stage a bold marquee event in one of the world’s most buzzed-about new venues, The Sphere. (For the record, it was fantastic).

But there was another group who made a big splash in Las Vegas, and it was the Utah Hockey Club, inhabitants of the newest locale in the NHL and the team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes.

For it was in The Sphere that the hockey media got their first in-person scrum with new owner Ryan Smith. Not only that, but Utah had two first-round picks – Tij Iginla became the team’s first official draftee at No. 6, while Cole Beaudoin went 24th overall – and GM Bill Armstrong shook up Day 2 of the draft when he made a pair of big-time trades, landing two-time Stanley Cup-champion D-man Mikhail Sergachev from Tampa Bay, then fortifying the back end further by nabbing John Marino from New Jersey.

It has all been a vortex of activity for Smith and his Utah crew, who rescued the Coyotes players and staff in April. Since then, there was a welcome party for the team in an airplane hangar in Salt Lake City, a crush of interest from locals for season tickets and, anecdotally, way more media waiting to interview Utah’s picks at the draft than when the team was based in Arizona.

The franchise is still in the process of choosing a name with the help of a fan voting contest – it’s going to be the Utah Yeti, right? – but for this upcoming season, they will take to the ice at the Delta Center with the state’s name emblazoned across their chests in big, stair-stepped letters.

Had a chance to breathe yet after all of that? Must be nice. “It’s been a whirlwind,” Smith said. “We have phenomenal people in our organization, and everyone just lifted where they could to open up a market. It feels very much like a start-up in tech, where it’s all hands on deck all the time. That’s the world I come from, and it’s been incredible. It’s been inspiring, is what it’s been. Not only from our people, but from the state and the community.”

Pro hockey has been around in Salt Lake City for generations, with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies currently inhabiting the southern suburbs. But the state hadn’t really been on NHL radars until recently, with the sport filling out through the west and a specific need – a reliable owner who had a building to play in immediately – being found in Smith. Undoubtedly, the NHL tried its best to make it work in Arizona, but the uncertainty surrounding where the Coyotes would be playing in the future and whether owner Alex Meruelo could find said home simply became too much for the league to bear.

Smith, who also owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz, may not have envisioned his entry into hockey being so quick, but he’s very excited about his new team and its new NHL market. “If you zoom out, it all makes sense,” he said. “We were probably the only winter sports market that didn’t have an NHL franchise, as well as the home of most U.S. Olympic training teams. It’s all lining up in how we’re viewing this moment in Utah. Watching what the NHL has done in Vegas and almost plowed the way for three other sports franchises…we’re going to have that same impact.”

Smith estimated that he and his team had five different construction projects going on, and with Salt Lake City recently being awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics, the building of a new arena in the near future seems obvious (the Delta Center will work fine for the short term, but it’s a basketball-centric building, which means some seats won’t be optimal, or even usable, for hockey games). The team will practise at the Olympic Oval – from which the city hosted the Olympics back in 2002 – in its first season, but a new practice facility is already in the works on the site of an old shopping mall.

As for interest in the team, it came immediately. “We’re going to be sold out this year,” Smith said. “We’ll be in the top 15 in tickets in Year 1 – with 7,000 seats that aren’t quite set up for hockey yet. People will be watching on the Jumbotron, and they’ll be happy. And we haven’t even gotten through the 30,000 list of people who have registered. Sixty-three percent of them haven’t been to an event at our arena in a year. And 90 percent aren’t Jazz season-ticket holders.”

While there will be a honeymoon period for the team in Year 1, Utah does have the advantage of coming in as a club on the rise rather than an expansion unit. Armstrong had been held back by financial concerns in Arizona, yet still built a competitive team. This summer, he actually got to throw around some dollars, beginning with the acquisitions of Sergachev and Marino – who combine for nearly $13 million in cap space per season. “I’ve known both those kids since back in their junior days,” Armstrong said. “They have very strong character. Seasons can go up and down, but they’re still young men that have some learning to do. But they can have a great impact on our organization. Both can move the puck and play huge minutes. They’re going to be good pieces for us.”

The blueline was further strengthened via free agency with another Cup winner in 35-year-old Ian Cole, who was happy to sign in a new market. “The idea of being on a team that’s in a city for the first time and getting to experience that will be very fun,” Cole said. “Especially one that, very clearly in Utah, has embraced this team with open arms. It’s hard not to be excited for a situation like that.”

The fact Salt Lake City rolled out the red carpet as soon as the move from Arizona was announced certainly helped matters. “Obviously, it was a tough situation in Arizona,” Marino said. “Then you go to Utah, where you know the management has been unbelievable with basketball and MLS (soccer). Watching the video of the guys coming out on stage and the fans and atmosphere, it seemed pretty cool. And it will be even more special to be a part of it.”

Winning more games than they lose would be nice, too. Luckily, it looks like Armstrong has the team on the right track. The Sergachev and Marino trades were crucial because the GM knew he had a lot of holes to fill and free agency wouldn’t cover all of them. But those two D-men also help the connective tissue of the team since they’re around the same age as players such as perennial leading scorer Clayton Keller, power forward Lawson Crouse and goaltending gem Connor Ingram.

Armstrong had amassed a vast and impressive prospect pipeline in recent years, but those kids need to be folded into a roster; they can’t be expected to carry the water right away. “We’re starting to build now,” Armstrong said. “A good team that competes for a Stanley Cup, almost 50 percent is traded for. We’re going to amass these players and picks, but we’ll also have to move some players for our needs. That’s something we identified this year, and we still kept some good assets in the (Maveric) Lamoureuxs and (Dmitriy) Simashevs that will filter into our back side eventually.”

In acquiring Sergachev, Armstrong had to send one of the franchise’s best prospects – center Conor Geekie – to the Lightning, while losing draft picks in both that trade and the Marino deal with New Jersey. But Utah still made 11 selections in 2024 after Armstrong had 12 picks in 2023 and 10 the year before that.

"IT’S BEEN A WHIRLWIND. IT’S BEEN INSPIRING, IS WHAT IT’S BEEN– OWNER RYAN SMITH ON THE TEAM’S ARRIVAL IN UTAH"

Hoarding picks was the right way to start the rebuild, and now, the team has started to reap the benefits. “Those are the drafts you get really excited about because they can have a huge impact,” Armstrong said. “I like our scouting staff. We’re adding players, and we’re still swinging. People forget we took a lot of pain, a lot of pain, to be in the position we’re in now. And now, we’re coming out of it, and these are the good times where you get to see the young players roll in and the high picks. At the same time, you’re adding good players through trades, and that was through a lot of pain.”

Armstrong believes that Utah is in the fourth year of a rebuild, and any GM worth their salt will tell you it usually takes seven or eight seasons before you can truly become a contender. Having said that, the players have a positive outlook. “I looked at the roster and the potential I think it had,” Cole said. “They lost 14 games in a row last year down in Arizona. Let’s say they went .500 in those games; they’re knocking on the door of a playoff spot. So it’s a team that, when I played against them, I thought, ‘Wow, this is actually a really good team,’ and a team that could be very good in the future. I think we can take that step.”

In a very competitive Central Division, that next step will be difficult, though attainable – The Hockey News’ Yearbook predictions picked Utah as the second wild-card playoff team in the West – but at least for the players, there is stability off the ice for the first time in years. “The whole staff have done a tremendous job in making us comfortable,” said center Barrett Hayton. “For me, the move was straightforward, but for guys with family, they made it easy. Even the trip we took there at the end of the season, they had all the resources here for us, and we got a great feel and excitement off of that.”

Smith is happy to bring that stability and excitement to a group he sees as deserving of it. “If you think about this group, they’re incredibly resilient,” he said. “I was watching them lead through a lot of uncertainty and build and stick to what they could to keep morale high with ‘Coach Bear’ (Andre Tourigny). They can have a little fun now and figure out what it is that we want to do together and have that optionality. There’s nothing more I want to do than support these guys.”

As for the rebuild itself, Smith has already been going through it with his NBA team, as the Jazz are probably a year behind their new hockey cousins. He has his GM in Armstrong and a new president of hockey operations in Chris Armstrong (not related), who came from the Wasserman sports agency. “Part of Chris’ job is to manage me,” Smith said. “And I’ve got (Jazz CEO) Danny Ainge on the other side managing me as well, so it’s a pretty cool spot. But that’s the balance. You’re managing polar-opposite emotions at all times. You want to win now, but you want to win for the long term and create a culture. We’re young, and the future looks bright. And with our other club, we’re definitely playing the long game.”

Smith says he always bets on youth and noted that Utah is the youngest state in the Union right now. He sees a population of Utahns who like to go out and believes his hockey team will be a hit with the locals, though he also knows he and his team are now responsible for building a brand with much less runway than is typical for a team in a new city. Now, all he can do is trust the people he has surrounded himself with and watch one of the biggest NHL stories of last spring turn into one of the most intriguing headlines of autumn. We hear Utah is nice that time of the year… ■

Utah Mammoth Signs Vitek Vanecek To One-Year Contract The Utah Mammoth have announced that they have signed backup goalie Vitek Vanecek to a one-year $1.5 million contract. 

Utah Mammoth Sign Nate Schmidt To 3-Year Contract The Utah Mammoth have announced that they have signed defenseman Nate Schmidt to a three-year $10.5 million deal. The contract carries an average annual value of $3.5 million per season.

Utah Mammoth Signs Brandon Tanev To 3-Year Deal Utah Mammoth have announced that they have signed forward Brandon Tanev to a three-year $7.5 million deal. The contract carries an average annual value of $2.5 million per season.

From The Archive: Top 100 NHL Players: 47. Clayton Keller The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features.