The newest addition to the NHL, the Utah Hockey Club, has been making a splash this offseason in preparation for their first season. Between choosing a name, designing jerseys, and signing players, Utah has definitely kept busy.
Will the Team Be Named Utah Hockey Club Forever?
For their inaugural 2024-25 season, the team will be referred to as the Utah Hockey Club, similar to how the PWHL began this past season. However, they are still deciding on their official name which will be selected in time for the start of the 2025-26 season. The top six contenders are: Mammoth, Yeti, Outlaws, Blizzard, Venom and Utah Hockey Club. It will be exciting to see what the new name and mascot will be.
Utah’s Icy New Look
Courtesy of @utahhockeyclub / Instagram
Utah’s colors and jerseys have been announced with merchandise already on sale. Utah Hockey Club’s official colors are rock black, salt white, and mountain blue, which complements the new color palette of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, who are under the same owner as the hockey team. Rock black is supposed to symbolize “both the darkness of night in the mountains and the volcanic rock of Utah’s desert,” while salt white characterizes “both the snow of Utah’s peaks and our famous salt flats.” Last but not least, mountain blue illustrates the team’s winter sports history and its clear skies for 230 days of the year.”
The look of Utah’s new jerseys and merchandise can be described as sharp, bright, and icy, which certainly seem fitting for a hockey team. Their home jersey’s base color will be rock black, with “Utah” across the jersey diagonally in salt white, bordered by mountain blue. Across the bottom of the jersey and the arms, there will be stripes of salt white and mountain blue. For Utah’s away sweaters, the base color will be salt white and “Utah” will be written across diagonally, again bordered by mountain blue. The away jerseys will also have striping along the bottom of the sweater and the arms, but this time in rock black and mountain blue.
The 2024 NHL Draft
On June 28 and 29, the 2024 NHL Draft was held in Las Vegas, NV. This was the first draft that Utah participated in and they came out with 11 picks. During the first round on June 28, Utah chose its first draft picks. The sixth-overall pick was forward Tij Iginla, who is the son of Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla. Utah also had made some trades in order to have the 24th pick, with which they chose to draft forward Cole Beaudoin.
On the second day of the draft, Utah was able to score six defensemen and three forwards. During the second round, the team chose defenseman Will Skahan as the 65th overall pick. Skahan is a silver and gold medalist who will be developing with Boston College in the 2024-25 season. In the third round, Utah acquired two more defensemen, Tomas Lavoie and Veeti Väisänen, who were the 89th and 96th picks of the draft.
In the fourth round, Utah drafted defenseman Gregor Biber as the 98th pick and forward Gabe Smith as the 103rd. Then in the fifth, Utah selected forward Owen Allard and defenseman Alex Cech, who were the 135th and 153rd overall picks. Utah’s final selections were made in the sixth round with forward Vojtech Hradec and defenseman Ludvig Lafton, the 167th and 190th picks, respectively.
Who Has Been Added to the Roster?
Since free agency began, Utah has inked a few signings. Within the first five days, Utah came to terms with four players. On July 2, defenseman Kevin Connauton signed a two-year contract worth $1.55 million. Last season, he had been playing for AHL Ontario, so it is likely he will at least start the 2024-25 season in the AHL, but he could move his way up. The next day, Utah re-signed forwards Travis Barron and Milos Kelemen each to a one-year contract worth $775,000. Barron played for the AHL Tucson Roadrunners last season and is likely to continue with them this season. Kelemen split his time last year between the Roadrunners and the Coyotes, so it is possible that he could be playing with the big boys up in Utah this season. Then on July 5, Utah signed goalie Jaxson Stauber to a one-year, $775,000 contract. He was playing for the AHL Rockford IceHogs last year, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he starts in Tucson this season.
On July 7, Utah re-signed forward Curtis Douglas to a two-year contract worth $1.55 million. Like Barron and Kelemen, he is likely to continue playing with the AHL Roadrunners. The contract extensions didn’t just stop there; the following day, July 8, the team also re-signed forward Barrett Hayton to a two-year deal worth $5.3 million. Last season, Hayton only played 33 games with the Arizona Coyotes due to multiple injuries. Hopefully he will be in good health for Utah’s first season. Then, on July 9, the team signed forward Egor Sokolov to a one-year, $775,000 contract after acquiring him from Ottawa. That same day, Utah signed defenseman Artem Duda to an entry-level contract worth $2.85 million. Duda played for Toronto Metro University last season and is likely to be playing for the AHL Roadrunners in the 2024-25 season.
Tij Iginla, Courtesy of @utahhockeyclub / Instagram
The Utah Hockey Club has also signed its very first draft picks to their entry-level contracts. On July 11, they signed forward Tij Iginla to an entry-level contract worth $5.925 million. Last season he played with Kelowna (WHL), tallying 84 points, and was ranked first in goals and second in points. He also won gold for Team Canada at the 2024 IIHF U18 World Juniors, tallying six goals and assists for a total of 12 points. Ten days later, on July 21, Utah signed forward Cole Beaudoin to an entry level contract worth $2.925 million. He played with the OHL Barrie Colts last season, scoring 62 points in 67 games. He led the team in power-play goals, ranked second in assists, and third in both goals and points. Additionally, Beaudoin won the gold medal alongside Iginla in the 2024 IIHF U18 World Juniors.
How Will Utah Fare in the 2024-25 Season?
For Utah, this inaugural season will serve as their first impression to the rest of the league, which is both exciting and nerve wracking for the team. Because Utah was formerly the Arizona Coyotes, the league may associate Utah Hockey Club with its lackluster former self. Utah’s general manager, Doug Armstrong, has the desire to transform the team into winners. To do this, they have kept some of the Coyotes’ most important players such as Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse, Nick Schmaltz and Connor Ingram. The three forwards, Keller, Crouse, and Schmaltz, also doubled as the Coyotes’ alternate captains and as the players who have been on the team the longest. They bring skill as well as leadership to the team. As for Ingram, he became the starting goaltender for the Coyotes last season, helping the team improve their record.
Utah also wanted to bring something new to the team, which they did with defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. Sergachev was a first-round draft pick in 2016 and won the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Marino has played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New Jersey Devils since making his debut in 2019, appearing in the playoffs four of those five seasons. Between the two, they bring veteran presence to the team and hopefully stronger defense.
The two newest signees, Iginla and Beaudoin, are also a highly-anticipated addition to the team. Armstrong, the general manager, said about Iginla, “I said to him, we have a lot of 20-goal scorers. We need a 50-goal scorer. He’s got a change to kind of push the pace and score some goals for us.” As for Beaudoin, Armstrong believes that not only his talent, but his mindset and work ethic will be critical for the team. The general manager said, “He’s going to push the pace, how hard we play, and how hard we work off the ice. He’s going to help our culture.”
It is essential for Utah’s roster to have talent and skill, mesh well together, and have a mindset or culture that is focused on winning and positivity. With these in their back pocket, the Utah Hockey Club has an opportunity to prove that they can win and that Utah is a place for hockey.
Edited by Breanna Ebisch
Comments