The 26-year-old addressed the media Friday with general manager Bill Armstrong and head coach Andre Tourigny after being named the first captain in Utah Hockey Club history.
On March 30, 2022, Clayton Keller suffered what general manager Bill Armstrong feared could be a career-changing injury.
On Friday morning at the Hotel Park City, the forward from Chesterfield, Missouri, was holding the captain's jersey of the Utah Hockey Club.
"I was so focused on myself as an 18-, 19-year-old coming into the league," Keller said. "As I've gotten older, I've just started to realize the impact a guy can have on their team,"
Everyone in the room has noticed his growth from that phase, including head coach Andre Tourigny, who said his obsession with improvement is a daily discussion that Keller embodies.
"I've taken big steps in that direction of always being there for your teammate," Keller added. "Guys will say I'm hard on them sometimes, but it's because I care."
That care showed through when the rebuild under general manager Bill Armstrong reached a point where Keller walked into a dressing room that was unrecognizable in terms of players he knew.
He chose to deal with it and stick it out.
"That's where he earned a lot of my respect," Armstrong said. "He approached every day in that locker room like we were going to win, and he led by example by doing that."
It's a standard that Utah HC has aimed for ever since, and it only fits the centerpiece of their new rebuild now earns his right to lead the charge into the future.
"His desire to be better everyday, there cannot be a better example in our organization," Tourigny said. "We were hearing all summer about how hard he was working, and that's what it's all about."
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