Utah Hockey Club coaches got their first look at the new group of players Thursday as training camp kicked off. Here’s a potentially disorganized record of my thoughts from Day 1.
Utah Hockey Club injury update
The team announced at the beginning of the first practice that forward Nick Bjugstad and defenseman John Marino are listed as week-to-week with upper-body injuries.
Being week-to-week, we might not see either guy until the regular season, which starts Oct. 8.
Mikhail Sergachev is the real deal
Utah HC brought Mikhail Sergachev in for a reason, and that was clear at practice Thursday. He seemed to amp up the pace of play, which is likely a habit he picked up as a member of the back-to-back champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
As was the case with all the defensemen Thursday, Sergachev did not have a set partner. Unlike the other veteran defensemen, though, Sergachev was only ever paired with young, inexperienced defensemen who probably won’t make the team out of camp.
This might indicate that head coach Andre Tourigny wants to see what Sergachev can do on his own, without the help of an overly experienced partner. It could also indicate that Tourigny had intended to pair Sergachev with Marino, who, as mentioned, is out with an upper-body injury.
He refrained from answering questions about his role or potential partners after practice, stating that he’s just getting settled.
Tourigny told the media that he intends to pair each offensive defenseman with a defensive defenseman in order to balance the pairings.
No matter who his defensive partner ends up being, one thing is clear: Mikhail Sergachev has one of the hardest shots on the team.
The guys seem to like Cole Beaudoin
Cole Beaudoin was the odd man out at practice, meaning he did not skate on one particular line. This probably indicates that, at least for now, he’s not expected to make the team this year. That comes as no surprise, as players selected in the late first round very rarely play in the NHL that next year.
Unlike most of the team’s prospects, Beaudoin skated with group one, which contains nearly all the veterans and certainly everyone who’s expected to make the team. General manager Bill Armstrong told the Deseret News in late August that he wonders if Beaudoin could be a future captain of the team, so having him in group one is probably a way to instill leadership qualities in him from the get-go.
The guys seemed to love Beaudoin. At one point in practice, after he scored one of his signature net-front goals, the guys cheered for him — something that doesn’t typically happen at NHL practices. He seems to be well liked.
Oops
I’m not sure if Fanatics, the NHL’s new jersey provider, makes the teams’ name plates, or if that job is up to each team’s equipment managers. But somebody messed up.
Matias Maccelli, one of Utah HC’s top wingers, had his last name spelled wrong on his jersey. Hockey fans have reported misspellings on retail Fanatics jerseys for years and we all make mistakes, but when the jersey is on the actual player’s back, it’s a bad look.
Line combinations
For all the hockey nerds out there (as the world’s biggest hockey nerd myself, I can call them that), here are the team’s first line combinations. Don’t expect them to stay the same throughout camp or throughout the year; it’s still the first day of training camp.
- Nick Schmaltz — Barrett Hayton — Clayton Keller
- Matias Maccelli — Lawson Crouse — Alex Kerfoot
- Jack McBain — Logan Cooley — Dylan Guenther
- Liam O’Brien — Kevin Stenlund — Kailer Yamamoto
- Andrew Agozzino — Josh Doan — Michael Carcone
As mentioned, the defense pairings switched for nearly every drill, so there’s no point reporting them yet. Goaltenders Connor Ingram and Karel Vejmelka shared the majority of the load, with Anson Thornton taking turns throughout the practice.