Will the Utah Hockey Club win the Stanley Cup this year? Probably not. Does that mean this season will be a failure? Absolutely not.
Realistically, the Utah Hockey Club is performing as expected: It isn’t too far out of a playoff spot, but if the season were to end today, players would get lots of extra time to golf. Considering the fact that two of UHC’s top three defensemen have missed most of the season with injuries, it might even be doing a little better than it should.
But Utah is still in a rebuild, and this stage of the rebuild is where you have to patiently wait for the kids to get better.
The kids are, in fact, getting better.
“I’m excited about our team in the sense that there’s still more growth ahead,” general manager Bill Armstrong told the Deseret News over the phone on Thursday. “I think we’ve been knocked back by a few injuries here and there, and some growing pains, but where we are is exactly where I said. Trace my words: Some nights, we look like we’re going to win the Stanley Cup, and other nights we’re going to be (not even close).”
Armstrong has expressed that sentiment on a number of occasions since he arrived in Utah, and it’s true: Sometimes they beat one of the league’s best teams 6-0, and other nights they blow a 4-1 lead to the worst team in the NHL.
That’s how rebuilds go.
Would they love to be able to string together consecutive wins for the first time since game three? Sure. But learning how to both win and lose as a team is a process that every young group has to go through.
A good comparison
Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 2019, they finished the regular season with the fourth-most points in NHL history. They had star players at every position and a coach who will someday end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Despite all that, they got swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eighth-seed Columbus Blue Jackets.
“I’m excited about our team in the sense that there’s still more growth ahead,” general manager Bill Armstrong told the Deseret News over the phone on Thursday. “I think we’ve been knocked back by a few injuries here and there, and some growing pains, but where we are is exactly where I said.”
— UHC general manager Bill Armstrong
The Lightning used that failure as a learning experience. The following year, they didn’t finish nearly as high in the standings but they went on to win the Stanley Cup. Then they did it again the next year. And they lost in the Final the year after that.
I’m in no way insinuating that UHC is on the same level as the 2019 Lightning — the team was a decade into its rebuild, while Utah is a few years into its. But learning what it takes to win is a necessary step in the development of the team, and that’s what Utah is doing right now.
The hope is, a few years down the road, a beat reporter covering a rebuilding team will write about the path that the Arizona Coyotes/Utah Hockey Club took to achieve sustained success, using it as a model for how that team can do the same.
Utah Hockey Club’s prodigies
Let’s check up on “the kids,” since the team’s goal is for them to get better. Here’s an overview of the 23-and-under group:
- Logan Cooley, the youngest and highest-drafted player on the team, is on pace to increase his point total by 50% from last year.
- Dylan Guenther’s pace would put him at 69 points — a solid number for a 21-year-old.
- Maveric Lamoureux has shown that he can compete at the NHL level on a nightly basis, though he’s currently out with an upper-body injury. He has some things to improve upon, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with a better attitude.
- Vladislav Kolyachonok is proving that he has what it takes to play, and he’s one of the hardest-working players on the team.
The next group of young players have all been in the league a while, but their competitive window isn’t in danger or closing anytime soon:
- Clayton Keller is consistent, if nothing else. He’s on pace for 72 points — just shy of the 76 he had last year. Additionally, he has taken on the new responsibility of being the captain.
- Mikhail Sergachev is proving to be a top shutdown defenseman as well as a scoring threat. If the team hands out an MVP award at the end of the season, he will probably be the recipient.
- Jack McBain has been a welcome surprise. His eight goals put him in second on the team in that category — and all but one of those goals came at 5-on-5. He has also continued the physical aspect of his game and has been a leader in the locker room.
- Michael Kesselring may be the most improved player on the team this year. When fellow right-shot defensemen John Marino and Sean Durzi went down, Kesselring stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. There isn’t a team in the NHL that wouldn’t be better with him on its roster.
Quick note on Kesselring. I asked Armstrong which player has most exceeded his expectations, and he didn’t hesitate to say it was Kesselring.
“He trained hard in the summer,” he said. “He’s coming in with some fire in his eyes and he continues to improve each day. ... I’ve liked his game and his growth and I think that he’s helped our team stabilize the back end.”
- Barrett Hayton has shown flashes of greatness. He scored five points in the first three games, but has since cooled off. If he can become a bit more consistent, he will be a valuable top-six center for Utah.
- Matias Maccelli hasn’t had the start to the season that he probably wanted, which led to him being left off team Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster. He’d be best to use that as motivation and pick up the pace a little bit. He has the talent to be an elite playmaker, but it’s been an off year so far.
Utah also has a number of players developing in the AHL, and if all goes according to plan, many of them will end up being permanent NHLers. Josh Doan is tearing it up, Maksymilian Szuber is getting noticed by the NHL team and Jaxson Stauber just recorded his first NHL shutout.
A successful season off the ice, too
Another component of a successful inaugural season is that the community embraces the team.
They’ve sold out every game — including the partial-view seats for select games — and they’ve broken all kinds of records in terms of merchandise and concessions sales. The team is doing just fine in that regard.
“Our community has been incredible,” Armstrong said. “Every day we play, we seem to get more fans and more attachment to the team. It’s been great.”
Engaging the local community is of utmost importance to a new franchise. Sure, Utah has had professional hockey for decades, but it has never been a mainstream sport here. The fact that the people have cared so much about the team is a big win.
Armstrong also mentioned that when the Edmonton Oilers came through Utah last week, some of their staff said it was the loudest building they’d been in all year — and that’s saying something, considering the passion of the Oilers’ fanbase and the team’s recent trip to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
What does the future look like for the Utah Hockey Club?
Whether the team makes the playoffs this year or not, UHC has an excellent pipeline of young talent and a plan to get to the next level. It might not happen this year. It might not happen next year. But soon enough, this team will be a perennial Stanley Cup contender.
“There’s moments in each game where you can see the team start to emerge with the speed and the skill level,” Armstrong said. “Just be patient. There’s more of that to come. ... We’re a team that’s going to make improvements every day and get a little bit better.”